"What are you doing?!" Kakashi shouted. "I told you to run! This fight was over the moment I got caught. Now, take off! Your mission is not to prove how brave you are. It's to save the bridge builder. Stay on mission!" Natsumi looked back at Tazuna.
"Bridge Builder?" She asked and Tazuna groaned slightly.
"Well, I—I guess this all happened because of me," Tazuna said. "Because of my desire to live. But I won't let that stand in your way now." He stares at the genin sternly. "Forget about me, and do what you have to do. Go ahead and fight to save your sensei."
"Hmph," Sasuke said and then he smirked. "Alright. You hear that?"
"Mhm," Natsumi said. "You ready?" Zabuza let out a deep laugh again, and it turned maniacal.
"You really haven't learned anything, have you?" He asked. "Still playing your little game, pretending to be ninja. When I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents."
"Zabuza, the Demon," Kakashi remarked.
"Oh. So I was in your book too, huh?" The real Zabuza asked.
"Long ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist—also known as Blood Mist Village—before a student could become a ninja, there was one final test," Kakashi said and the real Zabuza looked at him.
"Hn? Do you know about the graduation exam?" He asked.
"What graduation exam?" Natsumi asked and Zabuza started to laugh.
"What's the big deal?" Sasuke asked. "We had graduation exams as well."
"Did you have to kill the other students to pass?" The other genin stared at him and Sakura took a small step back, swallowing hard. "Imagine a young ninja like you—eating together, training together—and then comes the final exam. Only they changed the rules—kill or be killed. You can't stop while your opponent still breathes. He was your friend, shared your dreams. Now it's him... or you." Sakura brought her hands up.
"That's so cruel," she whispered. Natsumi stared down and clenched her fists.
"NARU!" Natsumi heard the voice of someone she once knew—Tomodachi. She shivered slightly and looked back up and glared at Zabuza. Kakashi now spoke.
"Ten years ago in the Village Hidden in the Mist, the graduation exam changed. One year before, a dark evil had filled the school with terror."
"What's he saying?" Sakura asked. "What evil? What kind of change? What caused the terror?"
"Without pause or hesitation, a young boy who was not even a ninja approached the class and took down over a hundred other students," Kakashi explained. Zabuza stood there with a dark look in his eyes.
"It... It felt so.. Good!" The clone Zabuza elbowed Sasuke in the stomach and sent him a few feet back. When Sasuke landed, Zabuza elbowed him again and blood shot out of his mouth as Sasuke screamed.
"Sasuke!" Sakura shouted. Zabuza then put his foot on his stomach and pressed down. Sasuke groaned and then screamed in pain as blood drizzled down the corner of his mouth. Zabuza then laughs.
"You're nothing," Zabuza said. Natsumi puts her fingers together, ready to cast a jutsu.
"Stop right there! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" she shouted and just like that, several dozens of Nataumis appeared around the Zabuza clone. Clone Zabuza put a hand on the hilt of his sword that still hung on his back.
"Oh. Shadow clones." He looks to his left and right with his eyes. "And there's quite a few of them." There was a long pause before all the Natsumi's grabbed a kunai in unison. Each shadow clone glared at Zabuza, intending to kill him—well, the clone anyway. Sasuke slowly got to his knees, groaning a little. All the Natsumis jumped up in the air and fell down, submerging Clone Zabuza. He was now stuck in the horde of Natsumis. But then they all got thrown off, and they all gasped.
"His skills are too advanced... he's too powerful. There's no way to defeat him," Tazuna said. All the Natsumis slid on the ground and poofed away. Besides, for the real one, of course. As Natsumi slid, she grabbed her backpack that was on her back and brought it in front of her. She dug through it and then threw Sasuke a handful of blades.
"Sasuke!" she shouted and then Sasuke caught them. He smirked as he held them.
"Not bad, Natsumi..." By now he was standing and faced Zabuza. Natsumi put her backpack back on. The blade transformed into a giant shuriken just like the one Mizuki had. "Demon Wind Shuriken: Windmill of Shadows!" Tazuna and Sakura looked shocked. Natsumi just smirks.
"A shuriken? You'll never touch me with that," Zabuza said. Sasuke said nothing and jumped up high into the air. He swung the shuriken back and launched it. Zabuza looked surprised when it didn't attempt to hit him, but slid past him and then headed for the real Zabuza. "So you passed the clone and aimed for my real body. Smart," the real Zabuza said. "But not smart enough." With the hand that wasn't in the water prison, Zabuza caught the shuriken. Suddenly, a second shuriken came towards Zabuza. "A second shuriken in the shadow of the first. The Shadow Shuriken Jutsu..." Sakura grinned. Zabuza then jumped so the Shuriken couldn't hit him and he still had a hand in the water prison. "I told you, a shuriken can't touch me!" Sasuke then smirked. The shuriken skidded in the water and poofed to reveal Natsumi.
"Take this!" She launched a kunai at Zabuza and having no other choice, Zabuza was forced to take his hand out of the water prison, freeing Kakashi. He growled at Natsumi and twirled his large shuriken above him.
"I'll destroy you!" Zabuza shouted. However, before he could swing the shuriken at her, Kakashi blocked him as he stood in front. Kakashi's hand was against the blade, bleeding, and made him stop twirling it. Natsumi finally fell into the water and bobbed back up to the surface shortly after. For the first time, Kakashi had a look in his eye. It was full of hate and a want for blood. Even Zabuza's eyes widened. Natsumi was panting as got up and stood on the water.
"Natsumi, that was an excellent plan," Kakashi said. Natsumi rubbed the back of her head slightly. "Thanks, I guess..." she shrugged indifferently. "I knew I couldn't beat him with my shadow clones. That was just to distract him. While he fought the clones, I turned onto the demon wind shuriken. He didn't know what to do. It's as simple as that... I used one of the clones to transform into the shuriken. When I threw it to Sasuke, it looked like a real shuriken. Sasuke could tell it was me in a second. He spun around so no one could see and pulled out his own shuriken. Now there were two shuriken. One was real. One was me. I hid in the shadow of the real shuriken and my target was the real Zabuza. My initial plan was to just destroy the water prison. His clone getting destroyed was just a bonus," she said. Sasuke smirked.
"Don't brag. You just lucked out."
"As if, Teme," she said, scoffing. "This entire plan was my idea," she said.
"It was just a fluke!" Tazuna yelled.
"You can call it a fluke, but their teamwork was flawless," Sakura said with admiration in her eyes.
"I got distracted and lost my grip on the water prison," Zabuza said.
"Don't flatter yourself," Kakashi said. "You weren't distracted. You were forced to let go," Natsumi smirked. Blood dripped from Kakashi's hand. "Your technique worked on me once. But it won't work again. So what's it going to be?" Zabuza and Kakashi stared at each other. Sasuke looked at Sakura.
"Sakura, you know what to do." Sakura nods and the two stand in front of Tazuna, guarding him. Zabuza scoffed and Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise. Zabuza transformed his shuriken to make it muck smaller again and dig it into Kakashi's hand. Fortunately, it was pressing against the metal part of his glove, so there wasn't too much damage. Kakashi swung his hand, and the shuriken went flying into the sky. Both Zabuza and Kakashi jumped back, now maintaining a distance between each other. Zabuza but his hand together and Kakashi gasped slightly. Both landed on the water and Zabuza began to do hand signs and chanted something in Japanese. Kakashi copied him.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" They both shouted at the same time as large water dragons appeared in front of them. The dragons crashed into each other, attempting to fight, and a giant wave came in. Natsumi had to jump up to get out of the way before standing on the water again. The genin and Tazuna braced themselves and the water splashed up to their chin before sinking again. The water dragons continued to crash into each other and water poured from the sky. Once again, Kakashi was blocking Zabuza's sword from the metal part of his glove. They were both struggling to get the upper hand. Zabuza stares at him, almost seeming confused.
'The Sharingan can comprehend and replicate the enemy's technique. However... both jutsu occurred simultaneously,' Natsumi thought to herself. Suddenly Kakashi and Zabuza jumped back again. They ran in a circle around each other before stopping. Kakashi was still copying Zabuza's movements. Zabuza did his signature hand sign and Kakashi copied it as well. He gasped slightly in surprise.
"He's not just following," Tazuna realizes. "He moves the same way at the same time.."
"How's he doing that, Sasuke?" Sakura asked. Sasuke didn't say anything at first. Meanwhile, Zabuza just stares at Kakashi, seeming to be thinking. Zabuza brings his hands together as he stares with wide eyes. He clasped his hands tighter.
"Huh. All you're doing is copying me like a monkey," Zabuza said.
"You can't beat me with cheap tricks," they both said in synchronization. "I'll crush you."
"When I finish you, you'll never open that monkey mouth again," Zabuza said, enraged, as he did more hand signs. Kakashi, of course, copied the movements. Zabuza's eyes widened for some reason. He must have seen an illusion of some sorts...
"Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" Kakashi shouts. The three tomoes in his Sharingan eye swirled around quickly at a godly speed.
"Impossible!" Zabuza shouted, and then a giant wave of water splashed down on him. The water was like a whirlpool and was all around the land as Zabuza tried to climb out of it. Natsumi herself got pushed under the water. When she bobbed back up, she grabbed hold of a tree branch to avoid being completely submerged again. Finally, the whirlpool of water died down as it hit a tree. Zabuza coughed as he stood against it. Kakashi threw four kunai. Two landed on Zabuza's upper arms while the others hit his knees. Zabuza screamed in pain. Kakashi was crouching on the tree branch above him.
"You're finished," Kakashi said to Zabuza.
"How?" Zabuza asked and looked back at him. "Can you see the future?"
"Yes," Kakashi said. "This is your last battle ever." He held a kunai, ready to strike again. Before Kakashi could kill Zabuza, someone did first as two senbon struck Zabuza's neck and he fell sideways onto the ground with his eyes wide open.
He wasn't breathing.
AN:
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