Chapter 13: Friends and Tools

Sasuke watched Naruto with an analytical eye, despite the heavy gust of wind that blew his hair around. He saw among the brief clashes of metal that Naruto was contesting Haku as he just was. However, something about him was… different. That big red stain that soaked the blond's black shirt and streaked down his orange pants wasn't lost on Sasuke. His immediate thoughts were that Naruto got horribly injured, but that didn't make sense.

Not even with his Sharingan could Sasuke spot a wound or so much as a tear in the fabric of his shirt. Even if there was, Naruto was the host of the Nine-Tails, such a wound would've healed long before bleeding this much. In the back of his mind, a worried train of thoughts culminated in, "What have you done, Naruto?" But Sasuke did his best to pay no mind to it.

"Don't worry, guys," Naruto's voice sounded from behind Hinata and Sasuke, eliciting a jolt of surprise even from them. The blond seemed somewhat shaken, and the dim glint in his blue eyes suggested that he wasn't mentally all there with his teammates. "The one up there's the clone," he gestured toward the Naruto who was barely managing to keep Haku at bay.

Naruto knelt down in front of Sasuke and eyed his fiery kunai in his hand. Naruto outstretched his hand to Sasuke, which aroused a look of confusion from him. However, when Naruto gestured for the kunai again, Sasuke decided to roll with it and went to give him the kunai. Naruto gripped the bottom end of the kunai. "Keep streaming your fire into it," he told the Uchiha calmly to which he replied with a curt nod.

Sasuke held his hand before his face to shield his eyes as Naruto started to slowly stream his wind chakra into the blade. The rolling heat slowly grew more intense as Naruto's wind fueled Sasuke's fire. The flame seemed to peter out into embers under the overwhelming gales rushing over the surface of the blade, eliciting a confused look from Sasuke. Then the embers roared back to life, engulfing the kunai with a sun-like luminosity that rendered all three of them squinting at its glory. The kunai whistled in anguish, now a bright hot orange blade at the core of a star – the flame was so powerful and hot that it commanded the sweat from their bodies. What stood before them was a cutting blade of fire two feet long – and it was then that Sasuke understood what Naruto was trying to do.

Both Naruto and Sasuke carefully guided the raging tip of flame into the surface of the ice that entrapped him. His teeth were gritted together and his Sharingan shrank into a fierce squint of focus. Naruto's face was stern, he bit his tongue down at the corner of his mouth. Fire met ice and greeted each other – the blade of plasma inching its way into the surface in increments that aroused cracks in the ice to sprawl out like a spider's web. Sasuke smirked, it was working rather well.

No sooner than a moment later had the shattering pop of ice intensified into a pitched hiss. Hinata's mouth couldn't help but gape in amazement at the sight of the steam blazing into the air and the sizzling boil of the water. It somewhat frustrated Sasuke that his Fire Style wasn't able to accomplish these results on its own, and slightly more so because he needed Naruto's assistance to penetrate the ice. However, he couldn't complain, because he felt that this might be the path to defeating Haku.

The ice around Sasuke's feet finally melted away just enough for him to break away from its freezing hold. He stepped onto the surface of the ice and swiftly brushed away the shards of ice that imprinted on his shins and calves. His skin was a blaring red underneath the ice, it left him raw with freezer burn and yet, he was also numbed to the bone.

"So, what happened to you?" Sasuke beckoned Naruto with an analytical eye as they dashed to Hinata's aid with the flaming kunai.

"Demon Brothers attacked Tsunami and Inari," Naruto blankly answered as he knelt down before Hinata and prepared the kunai again. "Did what I had to," he explained through the faintest expression of sorrow.

Sasuke regarded Naruto with a bewildered look. 'He killed them?' Just weeks ago Naruto was unable to even fight out of fear. Sasuke was somewhat put off by this, knowing that Naruto had taken the life of an enemy, that was something he couldn't relate to – not yet. His whole purpose revolved around taking another's life, so naturally, Sasuke was curious to inquire more about it from Naruto.

Sasuke managed to swiftly brush his curiosities aside for the moment. He bent down next to Naruto and gripped the kunai, flowing fire into the blade as he had done before. Naruto rested his hand around the handle of the weapon again and began to use his wind to fuel the flames. After a second, his efforts yielded similar results to the first time and the trio were shielding their eyes from the bright flame and melting beneath its smoldering heat.

To mix wind and fire was elusive and dangerous – too little wind chakra and the fire wouldn't become nearly powerful enough to melt through this ice, but the slightest amount of excess wind chakra and this kunai would explode in their faces, leaving them all permanently scarred. Yet somehow, Naruto had managed to not only find the delicate balance between his wind and Sasuke's fire, but maintained it flawlessly, creating the perfect ratio of the two elements to melt away the ice.

"Don't worry, Hinata. You'll be out of this in just a second," Naruto's quaint voice sounded over the sizzling boil of the water that was quickly encroaching on her frozen feet.

Hinata's attention was drawn away from the fiery blade and onto her blond teammate. She managed a weak smile. "T-Thank you, Naruto."

Naruto didn't bother looking back at her, or rather, he couldn't seem to make himself look at her. "No problem," he added with weak tones.

Sasuke was put off by his teammate's display. Sure, Naruto was relatively reserved but he didn't seem like he was just trying to keep to himself. He sounded deeply unsettled, defeated, lifeless, like a husk of a person. Where was his fighting spirit?

He examined Naruto further, his eyes tracing the blond until they settled on his face. It was a bleak expression, maybe even melancholic. He almost looked sick from how blanched his skin looked. But all of that paled in comparison to the state of his eyes. Once a set of bright-blue orbs that highlighted any of the soul's deeper emotions, now reduced to something lesser. They dimmed under a glazed-over film – Sasuke tried to see some semblance of soul left in them somewhere in his far-away stare, but all he could gather was a tired emptiness that overwhelmed him, and maybe a small glint of guilt. 'How bad was it?' was all Sasuke wondered.

His focus then shifted to his hands which were gloved in dried crimson, his wrists were accompanied by sporadic blotches that rounded their cusps. They were the same shade of red that stained two-thirds of his black shirt. He fought down a lump in his throat at the amount of it all, and an anxiety-inducing sense of queasiness invaded his gut. His throat dried and his face slouched into a sad, almost scared frown. Could he have done what Naruto did? Judging by the similar look on Hinata's face, she was silently contemplating something similar.

"Alright, try and pull yourself free," Naruto instructed the Hyūga as he pulled the heated blade out of the ice.

"Oh, y-yes, alright." She focused up and yanked her legs in every which way to liberate them until surely enough the thin walls of brittle ice broke apart with little effort. She allowed herself a relieved sigh and began to tear the ice away from her pant legs. Sasuke and Naruto shared a slight wince at the sight of the red and cracking skin around her feet and toes. The flesh itself appeared brittle under the biting cold.

"Who's our ice-user?" Naruto inquired as he stared off at the battle ahead. Naruto's clone had made two separate clones and they still seemed to struggle to pin Haku down.

"Zabuza's apprentice," Sasuke answered with a blunt edge.

"Her name is Haku," Hinata clarified, face morphing into a mortified wince watching one of Naruto's clones get impaled with an ice spike and dispel into a cloud of smoke.

Naruto was silent for a moment. Watching the exchanges between his clones and Haku with a self-reflective eye. Another clone fell prey to an icy senbon right through the throat and burst into smoke. "She's tough," was all he managed to say.

"Me and Hinata had devised a plan to take her down," Sasuke told the blond. "Her kekkei genkai is too strong for any of us to take her head on," he gestured to Haku who was cornering Naruto's final clone which tried its best to buy more time. "Hinata knows a technique that can temporarily shut her chakra pathways down."

Naruto's eyes flickered with surprise at this revelation and he scrutinized Hinata with a glint of intimidation and newfound respect. It was the most emotion Sasuke had seen in his face all day. "Sounds like quite the technique, Hinata," the blond commended her.

Hinata's timid disposition shined through and her eyes flitted from Naruto to her feet over and over again. She didn't appear keen on being the center of any kind of attention, but then a small, somewhat embarrassed smile crept onto her lips. "T-Thank y-you, Naruto," she mumbled out through bashful tones. "B-But there is a problem," she said with hesitance.

"What is it?" Naruto inquired with a raised eyebrow, which caused Hinata to subtly recoil.

"I-It's a taijutsu. I have to get in close to pull it off."

Naruto's eyes wandered over to Haku's battle with his final clone just in time to witness it get cleaved in half with little effort. His look hardened into a stern expression and a faint bead of sweat tumbled down his forehead. "That might be difficult." He turned back to face his teammates. "So, do we have any kind of plan or what?"

"We need to subdue her; restrain her long enough for Hinata to get her technique off," Sasuke reasoned.

Naruto hmphed and then offered a quiet nod in agreement with the Uchiha. "Fine," he said, forming a hand sign eliciting two clouds of smoke to puff into the air, "we'll keep her occupied."

Right as Naruto's doppelgangers emerged from their smokey cover, two senbon whizzed through the air and pierced their throats with disturbing accuracy. Each clone hit the ground with a loud thud and burst into wispy clouds of white.

"All those clones will be troublesome," Haku's flat voice remarked from directly behind the genin trio. Each of them scrambled to face Haku; Sasuke retrieved a kunai for defense. "I apologize, but I can't let you interfere with Master Zabuza's dreams." Haku's hands motioned toward each other. "Ice Style–"

"Stop her!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke flung his kunai at Haku's midsection and she leapt out of the way, halting her jutsu for a second. Hinata followed up with a volley of shuriken and Naruto pounced with a hail of wind bullets.

Haku weaved between slicing blasts of air and shuriken and dashed away in a blur. Naruto and Sasuke frantically scanned the area for her, but neither could locate her.

Hinata shot up. "Over there!" she exclaimed, finally spotting Haku with the help of her Byakugan. Naruto and Sasuke each began to string along jutsu as fast as they could.

"It's too late for that," wisps of mist snaked out of the edges of her mask. Her hands managed to blitz through seals faster than Sasuke had ever seen before. "Ice Style: Crystal Ice Mirrors." The surrounding water from atop the bridge to the sea below coalesced all around the genin trio like a dome.

"We're trapped!" Hinata exclaimed as she watched the water swirl around them.

"H-Hold on, maybe I can break us ou–" Naruto's words died on his lips. The watery dome began to freeze over into massive panels of ice that reflected their perplexed looks right back at them.

"This is my strongest jutsu – my domain," Haku's soft voice sounded over the light taps of her steps over the wooden boards of the bridge. "None of you can escape. Fighting me is futile."

Each of the genin inched backward into the center of the icy dome. Sasuke wondered if his and Naruto's fire and wind combination could melt away the mirrors, but the space they had was so tight that pulling off a fire jutsu like that on the fly would be more of a danger to them than to the ice.

Before any of them realized, their reflections were overwhelmed, consumed by the looming image of Haku's figure. Naruto stumbled back. "Which one is the real her?" Naruto whispered to his teammates to which Sasuke scrutinized each ice mirror, unable to differentiate between original and reflection, and shrugged with bared teeth.

"None of you will be able to land a hit on me," Haku said. It didn't sound like an overconfident boast – rather, it sounded like a casual relay of fact from her to them.

Hinata nudged at Naruto and Sasuke. "She's in the mirror directly to my left," she whispered discreetly. The Byakugan could see things that even the Sharingan couldn't, and as such, Hinata was the only one who could see the chakra network of the original body in the mirrors.

"We should all hit her at the same time," Sasuke suggested in faint tones, receiving curt nods of approval.

Hinata's hands slowly met each other in a veil of barely concealed secrecy inside the sleeves of her beige coat. There they worked to form a jutsu. "Lightning Style: Piercing Heart Attack!" Arches of plasma jolted around her index fingers and she pointed them directly at Haku. A thin beam of blue shot at the mirror in an instant, zapping it with electricity that rolled over the ice like waves. The dome rang with crackles and pops.

Sasuke's hands contorted into seals with haste and his chest swelled. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" The hot jet of fire ballooned into a flaming cloud and blasted Haku's mirror with sweltering heat.

Naruto stepped in between both Sasuke and Hinata. "Wind Style: Air Wave!" Naruto's hands met each other with a loud clap and a blast of air jetted out from between his palms. The concentrated gust of wind doused the flames of Sasuke's jutsu and caused it to billow up into a fiery storm that burned thrice hotter. Sasuke covered his face from the intense attack and the roars of the flaming winds died down to only quaint sizzles.

As the mists slowly escaped the loose dome of mirrors, finally the trio were able to see the havoc they wrought. All of their attacks had merely cracked the edges of the mirror and produced a thin film of melted ice water that rolled down and dripped onto the bridge. Sasuke felt a sickening drop in the pit of his stomach and then a loud gasp escaped Hinata.

Sasuke turned just in time to catch Hinata's face morphing from an expression of shock to intense focus and the bulging of the veins around her eyes.

"What's wrong, Hinata?" Naruto inquired.

"As I said, none of you will be able to land a hit on me," her cold voice sounded from behind.

Sasuke's breath escaped him. In an instant, it was as though any chance of victory was robbed from them. Haku was behind them now. But how? That had to be impossible. To move with the speed necessary to elude his Sharingan was ludicrous. A sense of fear quickly engulfed Sasuke.

Team Seven followed the origin of Haku's voice to the mirror directly opposite the one they attacked and ignored all the off-putting reflections. "Now, I will show you my real speed," she said, revealing an array of senbon clutched loosely between each of her fingers.

"Clone Jutsu!" Four copies of Naruto burst into existence and dashed for Haku's mirror, clinging to it within a moment. "Release!"

Sasuke instinctively covered his ears and turned away to prepare for the blast. But the shockwave of air never came and the deafening boom was replaced with an underwhelming sequence of poofs. Haku's mirror was blanketed with the smokey remains of Naruto's clones. She had managed to dispose of them faster than they could even explode.

A litany of senbon pierced the screen of smoke with white trails. Barely perceptible, they assaulted Team Seven, only grazing the flesh with precise scratches and cuts. Sasuke winced and bared his teeth from the scathing pain. Before he could recover, another onslaught of senbon tore into his skin, and another, and another. He couldn't even hear his own cries of agony because he was so focused on the unrelenting torment. His Sharingan faded away, no longer able to focus on keeping it active, and he collapsed to his knees.

Blood seeped out of the lacerations that covered his body. He looked to his teammates, who had also fallen to the ground panting through grating pain. Was this the end for them? Sasuke couldn't see a feasible way out of this jutsu. If they got out of it, how would they then beat Haku? He heaved a raspy sigh, his throat dry from excessive screams of pain. How was he going to avenge his clan if he was going to die? He felt something even colder than the chill in the air embrace him – hopelessness. Swift and shallow gasps for air signaled a wave of desperation. His chest tightened and his head throbbed. 'What should I do? What would Itachi do?' And then his whole train of thought abruptly halted. He gritted his teeth in frustration. 'To hell with Itachi!' he thought. 'I'll find my own way out of this.'

"C-Clone Jutsu!" Naruto's voice strained. Another set of four copies popped into existence and they raced for random mirrors.

"Do you not learn?" Haku rhetorically beckoned. Another slew of senbon whistled through the air and instantly dispelled the doppelgangers. "I am the perfect tool; crafted to ensure that Master Zabuza's vision is recognized. I cannot let you get in his way."

"Don't you have any dreams of your own?" Naruto sneered through his pained expression.

"Zabuza accomplishing his goals is my dream," Haku said firmly. "I'm sure you all have your own ambitions – dreams that you strive for. I don't want to shatter those dreams, so don't make me do it."

Haku's words were but hollow echoes in Sasuke's ears. If Haku were the perfect tool, why hadn't she finished them all off already? The perfect shinobi would have killed each of them before they even had a chance to retrieve a fresh kunai. No, Sasuke understood that Haku was far from a finely crafted weapon – she was soft.

"So what? We sit here and wait for Kakashi-sensei to die? Then what happens to us? That's a bunch of crap," Naruto protested. "No, I'll just beat you and keep my dreams," he stated matter-of-factly. "Clone Jutsu!" Another squad of copies emerged from clouds of smoke.

Haku scoffed. "Fine then," she resolved, "That's enough of you."

Sasuke eyed her looming reflections closely. Watching them disappear from the confines of the ice mirrors again as she went on the attack. His eyes flitted from mirror to mirror, waiting for the real Haku to pass through his focused vision.

The poofs of the clones being destroyed sounded off in rapid succession and then it happened. Sasuke's red eyes caught her and honed in on her as much as they possibly could. It was almost like time slowed down for him at that moment. Sasuke threw his hands together to form a new jutsu and every muscle in his body tensed in anticipation for his share of senbon, as he wouldn't be able to dodge and attack at the same time.

An intense wave of heat bubbled up inside him and then burst from his lips. "UGH!" A yell sounded from the other end of his fireball. The melting flames bit at Haku, snagging her out of the air and nabbing at the fabrics of her clothes.

"Water Style: Surging Wave!" she roared. Spitting a stream of water at the gnawing fire from close range until she managed to fight the attack off. The swirling mists swiftly dissipated and the thorough pats of Haku matting down the flames tearing away at her body echoed throughout the dome. "How did you manage to hit me with that?" she said with the slightest hint of surprise as black tendrils of smoke still wafted off of her.

Sasuke lowered his stance, and demanded more chakra to his Sharingan; his face was stern and focused. "I can see you," he said coolly behind the blaring stare of his red eyes.

"You'll be the first to go," Haku threatened. Her hands raised to meet each other. "Ice Sty–"

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto declared, unleashing a shearing torrent of gales in Haku's direction.

Haku's hands formed fists at her sides. She dashed away, dropping a smoke bomb behind her that burst into a billowing cloud.

Hinata waved her hand in front of her face between coughs, trying to fight away the toxic tendrils of black powder smoke that threatened her lungs. "Hinata," Naruto wheezed out between hacking up his lungs. "Your Byakugan."

"R-Right," she coughed into her fist as she pushed herself up to her feet. She closed her eyes and then the veins in her temples swelled. The jarring clarity of the Byakugan made short work of Haku's smokescreen.

Sasuke stood on high alert. His head began to throb from how much chakra he was directing to his eyes. His ears were bursting and his face was matted with sweat. He had never pushed his Sharingan this intensely before.

"Where's Haku?" Sasuke beckoned Hinata.

Hinata perked up, ready to oust Haku to her teammates. But she couldn't even manage to squeak out the first syllable before Haku sent a volley of needles soaring through the smoke that assaulted their whole bodies.

Each of the genin wailed in agony. This wasn't just an onslaught of grazes and cuts like previously. These senbon were stabbing into them, getting embedded into their skin an inch or two deep all over their bodies. The needles finally stopped and Sasuke took a moment to breathe in a shaky gulp of air.

He examined himself. A senbon protruding out of his shoulder seemed to pain him marginally more than the others, but he managed to brush that aside. The battle was more important to him. He shifted even more chakra to his eyes, achieving a higher level of perception every subsequent moment. It was then, through the wisps of the smoke, Sasuke saw Haku pounce onto Naruto with great speed, senbon at the ready.

Sasuke wasn't nearly fast enough to abate her attack. "Naruto!" he screamed.

Naruto's ears perked up, he turned his head to address Sasuke, and then a number of needles pelted him from the front with such force his body lurched, and he fell onto his face.

Sasuke raced over to his blond teammate, falling to his knees before him. Three senbon were embedded several inches deep into his torso, and two other senbon stuck cleanly through his neck which instantly incapacitated him. His mouth was agape and his eyes glazed over before managing to close on their own. Sasuke was overcome with a sense of fear, believing that Naruto might die.

"Naruto, wake up!" he demanded with clenched teeth.

Sasuke could see Hinata standing over him from his peripheral vision. He jostled Naruto's body by the shoulders with a desperate sheen of sweat layering his face. He wasn't sure if even the Nine-Tails could repair these wounds, or bring Naruto back from the brink of death. A feeling of panic settled in and he was reminded of that terror of watching others hopelessly being killed from all those years ago.

"Naruto's still alive," Hinata cut through Sasuke's troubled thoughts with disbelief etched into her words. "I can see it with m-my Byakugan. She didn't hit any of his vitals," the Hyūga explained.

"He was a nuisance," Haku interjected. "But, I won't kill him first. I did say that you would be the first to go," she reminded Sasuke.

"Sasuke, we have to make sure she doesn't attack Naruto again," Hinata said.

Sasuke was withdrawn. He slowly inched back up to his feet. An overbearing sense of frustration radiated off of his form. He concentrated more and more chakra within his eyes by the second. He focused on Naruto's unconscious body strewn out across the ground and carefully reached into his weapons pouch. He used Haku's voice to pinpoint what mirror she hid within and turned to face her with a kunai in hand.

Nearly all of his chakra rushed to his brain and gathered in each Sharingan until there was none left to draw from. A weird feeling overcame him and then he suffered a sudden spell of tunnel vision, followed by a shooting pain throughout each eye, as if his very pupils were being torn into separate pieces, and then all these effects subsided. He racked his brain for what could've just happened and all the dots swiftly began to fall in place. The intense use, the ever-increasing perception, this painful yet powerful feeling – it was at this point that he realized what his eyes had undergone.

Orbiting around his pupils was no longer one tomoe, but now it was two onyx black tadpoles that swam around his irises. "She won't lay a hand on him," he said with an aura of utter certainty.

"Let's see if you can stick to your word," Haku poised. Her reflection flickered out from the mirrors.

Sasuke raised his kunai, prepared to take another assault. A series of clings rang in his ears. He looked over to Hinata. She watched him flick away all of Haku's senbon in amazement.

"You didn't quite get all of them," Haku rhetorically asked, tapping at the mask where her cheek was.

Sasuke wavered and he brushed his hand over his cheek. He winced as if stricken then held his hand out from him, and saw that it was smeared with blood. His scornful gaze narrowed on his foe.

Haku left no time for Sasuke to retort. Again, she darted out of her mirror in a blur. A wave of senbon threatened to crash down over top of Hinata and Sasuke. Hinata stalled. Overwhelmed at the volume of needles poised against them, and at their blinding speed, Sasuke raced in front of her. He gripped his kunai so hard that his knuckles turned white. Finally, the hailstorm of senbon had closed in and Sasuke went to work. Swiping in every direction manically, he knocked senbon after senbon out of their path. Sasuke grimaced as senbon broke through his defense and grazed against his flesh.

The constant din of metal against metal faded away as the last of the needles piled onto the bridge and the only noise he could discern was the labored huffs and puffs of his own breathing.

"You're persistent," Haku commended from behind both of them. Sasuke twisted around to meet Haku. His eyes were half-closed and he felt ready to keel over from exhaustion. Hinata gasped, with Sasuke's front in full view she saw that he was laced with so many pins that it was miraculous he hadn't died. "I don't believe that you can pull that off again though," Haku chided.

Sasuke fell to his knees. Haku was right. It was then that a raspy cough escaped Naruto, which was followed by a groan. 'Naruto's coming to!' he realized.

"Will you let your friend die?" Haku's flat voice cut through the air and sent chills crashing over Sasuke. Her reflection streaked across every mirror like lightning. Sasuke's hair stood on end at the looming feeling of Haku descending upon Naruto's defenseless body. The senbon whistled through the air and Sasuke dashed into the fray with all the speed he could muster.

The visceral sound of flesh giving way to needles made his face pale. Eerie silence followed, and he gathered the courage to assess the damage, squinting through one eye at Naruto's body. There were no more needles buried into him than previously.

Sasuke felt he ought to commend himself for making it in time, but he didn't have nearly the strength to do that. His vision swam and he felt an intense bout of lightheadedness. For a moment, it was like he was floating weightlessly through the air and then a harsh bang greeted him as he tumbled over onto Naruto with two needles sticking cleanly through his neck.


Naruto felt a thud over top of him. He couldn't quite tell what it was. Truthfully, he wasn't particularly bothered. He would prefer to lay here and rest, at least for the time being. After all, today had been a rough day, and he was sure that Sasuke and Hinata could handle the situation themselves anyway. He resolved himself to rest here.

A sharp shriek pierced his ears and he shot up into a seated position as if awoken from a nightmare. His sight scanned from end to end all around him. He found Hinata next to him, her fair skin far more pale than normal and a petrified look on her face; something was wrong. A suffocating weight overcame him and his breathing was shallow. He sluggishly fought his way to his knees and a hardy thud met the ground beneath him. His eyes fell upon Sasuke, who lay motionless before him, senbon drilling into him from head to toe.

Naruto swiftly planted his ear onto Sasuke's chest, hoping to be greeted by a heartbeat. It was there, but it was faint, and waning away by the second. Mortal fear washed over Naruto. "W-What do we do?!" he asked Hinata out of desperation.

Tears had already begun to gather at the corners of Hinata's ghastly eyes. "I d-don't think he's going to m-make it, Naruto…" she managed through weak cracks in her voice.

Naruto felt his heart be torn apart. His mouth gaped at Hinata and he looked back at Sasuke with sorrow gnawing away at him. "What even happened to him?" Naruto beckoned through defeated tones.

"He protected you from Haku," Hinata explained, fighting away more tears.

'I got him killed…?' A devastating ringing pervaded his eardrums. He could feel a breakdown looming over him. Every muscle in his core screamed with convulsions that snaked up his chest and culminated with a heated throb in his temples. He shut his eyes and bared his teeth. 'We were just starting to be friends…' He cursed himself. How could he allow this to happen? He wanted to scream out as loud as he could, but his resolve shrunk under all this crushing weight.

"Why did you have to do it?" he whimpered to Sasuke's pallid frame lying lifeless in his arms.

A low mumble escaped Sasuke's lips, which were beginning to turn purple. The boy's fading onyx eyes wandered from a half-lidded stare.

Naruto jolted out of his spell, as if summoned by a phantom. "W-What did you say? Talk to me! Tell me what you said!" he begged his friend, leaning in closer to hear him.

"My body just moved on its own," Sasuke's voice faded into faint whispers in Naruto's ear.

Naruto's fingers instantly dug into Sasuke's shoulders like his life depended on it, like the stronger his grip was, the harder it would be for Sasuke's soul to escape his body. An anguish crept over him like no other before. He wished to anyone, anything for the power to heal Sasuke.

Sasuke's hand clasped onto Naruto's forearm. It was cold to the touch. "I promised I wouldn't die… until I killed him," a somber expression of defeat overcame Sasuke. "I gave everything I had for it… thought I couldn't die until then," he admitted, a hint of bitterness in his waning voice. "Y-You guys can't die too…" His eyes shut and his grip on Naruto's forearm gave way.

Naruto quickly snatched Sasuke's lifeless hand with his own. His breathing stopped. The rioting miasma of ideas and emotions in his mind became blank. He could only stare at Sasuke resting in his hold. Everything Sasuke stood for, everything he believed, his past, his future, and his dreams were all going to disappear with his soul. Shattered into a million pieces. Tears welled up in Naruto's eyes and streamed down his cheeks. What could he do?

"Without even thinking he sacrificed himself for you," Haku said. She stood in front of him. Naruto couldn't look at her. Just hearing her voice was arousing a hot rage that bubbled under his skin. "He jumped headlong into what he knew was a trap to save someone he cared for," Haku stalled, and then, surprisingly, she bowed before Sasuke. "He was a shinobi worthy of the utmost respect," she commended.

Naruto saw this gesture and felt outraged. How could she say something like that when she's the person who did this to Sasuke? It made no sense. It only served to anger him more.

"Is this the first time you've lost a comrade?" Haku wondered. "Such is the path of the ninja."

Naruto couldn't stand to hear her cold, emotionless voice anymore. He hated it. He hated her. The blood-red hatred filled him, coursing through his entire body, he felt every hair stand, every muscle tense, and his eyes could see nothing but red. In that moment, he knew that he needed to dedicate everything to brutalizing Haku for what she had done.

"You cannot kill her with your own power," a booming voice from within him said.

Naruto fought off a shudder, feeling as though the atmosphere around him had gotten much heavier – much hotter. It was as though one moment he held Sasuke's body in his arms, surrounded by the chill of ice with Hinata next to him, and now all of that was gone. Like he had been transported away. Any deep-rooted anger he felt subsided, overwhelmed now by an incessant panic over where he was and how to get back. He stood up, and the curious sound of water sloshing around caught his attention. All around him, there was an ankle-high puddle that stretched for as long as his eyes could see in this dimly lit expanse.

Seeking further information about where he was he jolted around and found a cage of sorts. An audible awe escaped him at the scope of it. Bars so high and wide they made the Hokage Tower seem measly. The spaces between the bars were so grand that entire bands of people could easily slip through. The only thing keeping the door closed was a regular-sized white tag that appeared to be somewhat worn, with a label that read "seal". Naruto had to assume it was the prison of a giant.

"Hello!" he hollered into the onyx void. "Can anyone hear me?!" he screamed with his hands cupped around his mouth.

"You don't have to scream in here," the same voice said, which was so loud and deep it rattled Naruto's bones. It came from behind the cage.

Naruto peeked inside, trying to locate the origin of that voice, when the distinct red of an iris lit up the dark, exposing a ginormous eyeball from just behind the bars staring directly at Naruto, the dark vertical slits of a predator dilating as it honed in on him. Naruto felt chills race down his spine realizing that eye might have been observing him the whole time.

Naruto jumped back, riddled with pure fear. "Wh-What are you?!"

One giant red eye multiplied into two and Naruto fell onto his backside from the great rumble under his feet. 'Is this just from it moving around!?' Naruto's chest pounded with worry.

"I have a deal for you," the voice said from behind the darkness.

"W-What is it?" Naruto asked, terrified of if he could even turn down this thing's offer or not.

"I can give you the power to kill the girl and heal your friend from certain death," the deep voice bellowed. "All you have to do is tear that seal tag on my prison a tiny amount."

Naruto's eyebrows quirked. Something about this didn't feel quite right to him. "Why wouldn't you ask me to just tear the whole thing off?" he curiously beckoned.

"Because you are not that stupid," the voice explained. "You know I am locked in here for a reason. You would not trust me if I told you to simply let me free. But, I can give you the power to kill your enemy and save your friend if you give me some more wriggle room to work with."

"What does the seal have to do with you helping me?"

"I cannot give you the sufficient chakra you seek because the seal prevents it. If you decide to break it a little, that would change."

Naruto's eyes curiously swung from the stern red gazing eyes to the seal and back. "You're the Nine-Tails, aren't you?"

"That is correct."

"And if I do break that seal, I'm assuming it is going to allow you to start breaking out on your own."

"Let me help you make this decision more easily," the Fox said. "The Uchiha is going to die in large part because of your weakness; the Hyūga girl and yourself will follow shortly after, and then your master will be overwhelmed. I am giving you the opportunity to avoid all of that in exchange for the chance that I may one day escape this vessel."

"So… what you're saying is that I don't really have much of a choice," Naruto realized. "How do I know when you give me some of your power that you won't possess me and kill my friends or something?"

"Unlike with Shukaku's vessel, you ultimately get to decide how much power I give you based on how big the tear in the seal is. I am a tool to be used," the Fox explained.

"How will I know you're not trying to trick me?"

"You cannot," it replied plainly. "You do not have much of a choice, remember?" it pointed out with a devious smile that bared all its sharp fangs through the blanket of darkness. "Unless you want that ice-user to kill all of you, I suppose."

Naruto's concerned look was overcome with an angry scowl. He stood up from the puddle and slowly walked forward. Reaching the seal, he scrutinized it closely. It was fairly intact, save for a few minor tears around the edges and a general weary appeal. He looked at the Fox, its giant eyes, unblinking and bloodshot, bore holes into him from how intense its stare was.

He put his hand over the paper tag and contemplated if he had any other paths he could take. Sweat gathered on his brow, he was feeling a great sense of nervousness. This wasn't the right thing to do – he knew that – but what else could he do? He sighed and gave the Fox a stern glance before shifting his focus to the seal again. Gripping the top edge of the paper between his index finger and thumb, he pulled downward ever so gently until he heard the faint sound of a rip and halted. "I-Is that enough?" he swallowed a lump down his throat.

The Fox stepped forward toward the entrance of the cage, allowing its head to be washed in what faint light there was. Just its face was as large as a building. An ominous feeling crept over Naruto at the sight of the Fox's orange-red fur. It seemed to be doing something, but Naruto couldn't quite tell what on account of the darkness.

"This will do." the Fox said before flashing another ear-to-ear smile at Naruto. The wicked look on its face was enough to rob anyone of confidence.

"So what happens next?"

"You get to leave now," it said.

Just then, a faint glow of red streamed from inside the cage and through the bars, dancing on top of the water as it snaked its way toward Naruto. It latched onto his leg first, but then quickly ignited around his whole body like a flame fueled with oil. It was extraordinarily hot, but nothing could've prepared him for the agony of the Fox's chakra actually seeping into his own like this.

An extreme wince devolved into frantic cries and whimpers as Naruto felt like all of his insides were burning away from this new power sluggishly coursing through him. A worrying thought suddenly occurred to him that he may die here. He fell over and writhed on the ground, splashing around the surrounding water like a madman.

"Save your friend, kill the girl," the Fox told him, almost as if to remind Naruto, or maybe he was telling him.

And with that, Naruto was suddenly back. The chill of the ice and ocean air embraced him and he embraced Sasuke's chilling body. A gripping anger rolled over him, taking possession of his being and replacing any and all sorrow he initially harbored. His teeth clenched and his eyebrows furrowed with extreme burning hatred. He wanted to get up right that second, pounce on Haku, and kill her. He needed to do it. But he couldn't. He needed to tend to Sasuke first.

The red chakra flowed through Naruto along with his own, enhancing each other as they went. Naruto had never experienced a power like this. It inflamed every cell of his being but it made him feel tougher, almost invincible.

The clinging of needles rang in his ears, the first cue of noise he had picked up on this whole time. He glanced around him and saw that one by one, all the senbon in his body were being forced out of their wounds. The holes they left behind were healed over at the sound of sizzles and wisps of steam. Naruto was as good as new – no, he was better.

He gripped Sasuke harder, ignoring the sharp claws that sprung up from each of his fingernails, and tried to manifest the Fox's chakra from his body.

Slowly but surely, it bubbled up from the surface of his skin before blasting into the air. A tornado of fire twisted and turned all around him as it billowed into the sky where it formed the menacing head of the Fox.

The looming fox head withered into wisps of the dreadful chakra that emanated from Naruto's person as he harnessed greater control of this new power. The swirls of red clung to Naruto's hands, which still gripped Sasuke. It was then that the Fox's chakra began to spread over the Uchiha's body like fire. From head to toe, every needle in Sasuke's body was pulled from his flesh and tossed to the ground. Every laceration, every hollow bore, every wound was then repaired within seconds under a wisp of vapors.

The red rolled off of Sasuke's body and dissipated into the atmosphere when Naruto let go of him to finally stand up, knowing that Sasuke was no longer going to die.

Finally, he could attend to Haku. Just thinking of her made every muscle in his body clench fiercely with fury. His enraged scowl was staring holes into Haku's mask. "I will never forgive you," he managed to growl out in low tones. His skin crawled all around his bones, and a burning inferno eviscerated him from the inside – it was agonizing. But it only managed to provoke his overwhelming need for Haku's blood. "I'm gonna kill you!" he declared as he fell onto all fours.

END


Author's Note

Here's chapter 13. Hope it finds you all well. Be sure to tell me what you think and whatnot.

Review Replies

mj906brunswick – Happy to hear that it had that level of an impact on you. Always flattered to hear someone moved so strongly by something in the story.

NaFemaleGem – It's great you like the fic. Also a good question. So far pretty much everything Naruto is able to do is something Tsunade taught him. Gaara will get his time in the sun here relatively soon as well. But yea, I'll probably expand on what Tsunade taught them here and there.

surya25addanki – Awesome to see that you like the fic so far. As for Six Paths, you'll just have to wait and see on that one lol.

DD – I appreciate the input. I'm not a writer and this is ultimately the first and only long term writing project I've ever undertaken. My skills will ultimately improve with time. That being said, if you don't like the tone and characterization of the people in the story, then you probably aren't going to like the fic. If you stick it out though, that'd be appreciated too.

Anyway, it's about time to bring this bad boy to a close. Next chapter drops on Saturday, March 9th, around 12-1pm.

Review at your leisure, but especially if you have any questions. Favorite and follow as well.

Godspeed,

Salt.