Haku held up another set of senbon and grimaced. He knew that his mask would give him a cold, dispassionate vibe no matter what his expression, as long as he kept it out of his voice. The truth was, however, that he was feeling the pressure. Naruto was hard to keep off-balance and nearly invulnerable to the senbon Haku specialized in. Hinata was just as hard to hurt, but her more energetic acrobatics clearly had her tired. She wouldn’t last much longer.
It was almost a pity. She was clearly a skilled fighter, but confused and unconfident. She had rushed into the dome to push Naruto out of the way of a senbon Haku hadn’t even thrown yet, and still managed to deflect the weapon when he realigned to attack her instead. A few years of maturity and she would be a kunoichi worth keeping an eye on. Instead, she wouldn’t last another ten seconds. Unless…
“It’s time to end this,” Haku said gently. He leaped from the mirror and ricocheted around the dome.
Naruto was getting tired of that calm voice. The taunts were unimaginative, but the way he said it, like killing them was as uninteresting as the possibility of rain, grated his nerves. He forced himself to think. Punching at Haku and launching clones wasn’t getting him anywhere. Wait, Haku wasn’t throwing senbon yet. What was he planning?
Hinata didn’t bother to track Haku with her face. She needed to save her energy. Her blindspot with the Byakugan was shamefully large, but it was still far too small for Haku to use at such close range. Haku’s pattern was different this time. Her breath caught as the pieces fell into place.
Haku started throwing senbon at lightning speed. He ignored Naruto completely; each weapon was targeted at Hinata, and most of them at her eyes.
Zabuza cleared his head from the sudden blow and brought his sword up in a guard. “That was a dirty trick, Sharingan Kakashi.”
“Ninja,” Kakashi pointed out.
“You still can’t win.”
“Oh?” Kakashi asked. “I have no one to protect. Surely you haven’t forgotten the beating I gave you last time.”
“You didn’t manage to kill me then, and I have seen your Sharingan now. I won’t be fooled again.”
Kakashi closed his eyes in a smile. “But this time I am not alone.”
Zabuza’s eyes flicked to Kurenai and found her missing. The woman was another jonin. Two against one were long odds. If Haku didn’t finish quickly, they were in trouble.
A spike of killing intent came from the dome. Zabuza smiled back at Kakashi. “Amusing. Well since I can’t beat you and I can’t run, it seems my only choice is to fight you to the end.”
Hinata couldn’t meaningfully close her eyes with the byakugan, but panic and exhaustion forced her to drop it and cover her face with her arms and hope death didn’t hurt.
…
It wasn’t hurting at all. It really should hurt more than this. Unless she had died and not noticed. Oh, what would her father say if she hadn’t even noticed she had died!? Well, she supposed it wouldn’t matter much. She’d be dead, after all. Actually, this was quite a bit of thinking for a corpse, even a corpse that didn’t know it what a corpse. She opened her eyes carefully.
Wrapped around her was a wall of shimmering silver scales. She looked up…and up…and saw over her the upper body of a very angry dragon. He had long teeth and claws that would make Zabuza’s sword jealous with their sharpness. His scales were slightly damp from the humidity and glistened in the sun. They were thick and showed a great deal of muscle under the armored skin. His eyes were startlingly blue, narrowed in anger and staring, probably at Haku.
Naruto was indeed staring at the ice wielder, and he found in the crevice of his instincts an ability he had never needed to use. He stretched out to loom over Haku, still curling his tail and lower body around Hinata, spread his wings, flexed his claws, growled, and set loose the Dragonfear. It settled over the bridge like a heavy blanket.
Hinata’s jaw dropped as she felt it. She looked the dragon over again and whispered the only word that came to mind. “Beautiful.” It was like being wrapped in a fluffy blanket that would protect her from everything!
Naruto’s head craned around so fast even his flexible neck hurt doing it and his jaw dropped, staring at Hinata in utter shock.
Hinata blushed. “Eep. Sumimasen.”
Haku shook his head and tried to bundle up what courage was left. He felt like he was being smothered by the sheer hate Naruto had for him. Except that wasn’t hate. And it wasn’t simple bloodlust like usual Killing Intent. This was more…disdain. His senses were telling him that he was a bug in the presence of something Great, and that he had just irritated that something enough to be squished instead of ignored. If anything, it was the simple unassuming certainty of victory and the impersonal nature of irritation that made this feeling so fearful.
“So,” he said, and was annoyed to hear his voice crack. He tried again. “So. Not a dragon summoner at all. That certainly explains a few things.”
Naruto turned back to Haku and backhanded a few mirrors with one claw. They shattered. “Surrender,” he growled.
“I’m sorry,” Haku said. He threw a small smokebomb at Naruto’s head. “I can’t do that.”
Naruto gathered a few wisps of chakra and snorted at the smokebomb, sending out a tiny twister to shred it. Instantly the air was filled with a thick, white, minty vapor.
And then Naruto collapsed, completely unconscious.
Hinata just barely got out of the way of falling Naruto and stared at him, then looked to Haku. “What did you do?”
Haku paused to catch his breath. With Naruto down, he didn’t need to burn nearly so much chakra to keep a constant high speed attack and could actually rest inside his mirror for a moment. “It’s an herb called snowbreath or chillleaf depending on who you ask. When crushed the leaves release a cold minty gas. It was also called dragonbane in various legends.” He looks meaningfully at Naruto. The dragon was almost unnaturally still, breathing slowly and with difficulty. “Rather obvious why. Amazing beasts, but with so virulent a reaction it only takes some careful preparation to take one down.”
“No…” Hinata whimpered, running to Naruto’s massive head. Her byakugan activated almost by itself and she examined him. His pulse…Hinata suddenly realized she had no way of knowing what dragon vitals and chakra flows should look like in the first place! The dragon was obviously Naruto to anyone who had seen both of their chakra pathways; it was like looking at a fingerprint only this one was a heck of a lot bigger. It looked constrained around his lungs which was probably a really bad thing but even if Hinata could heal a human (which she couldn’t) she had no idea how to take care of Naruto.
Haku didn’t give her time to mourn any longer and launched a few senbon. Now to help Zabuza…sama?
Hinata deflected two senbon and grabbed the third out of the air. She stared down Haku with her Byakugan back once again. Her face was a mask of deadly seriousness. “No.”
Haku frowned behind his own mask. The dragon’s not-quite-killing-intent was terrifying because of its impersonal nature and the sheer assumption of superiority. The small girl he faced now…she was radiating something different. She didn’t give a damn about how strong he was or how tired she was. Her stance promised pain and suffering to someone who well and truly deserved all she could deliver and more.
Haku leaped from his mirror. She cared for him. I’ll end it quick. It’s kinder that wa-buah!
“Two palms!” Hinata was in no mood for another game of Poke Hinata With Metal Sticks and gave Haku a double strike to his ribs and ankle as he sped by. The older boy corkscrewed wildly out of control and ended up on the ground. His mask shattered on impact and revealed a stunned, pained, pretty face.
Haku jumped to his feet unsteadily. His ankle throbbed painfully as it took his weight, but he wouldn’t let a silly genin take him down that easy. He lashed out, throwing senbon with one hand while his other gripped one of the long needles tightly. He ran close to Hinata.
“Four palms!” Hinata cried, setting up the next set of attacks. Her first strike landed on a forearm, painful but not debilitating. Her second was caught by Haku’s held senbon and pushed the weapon through the soft tissue right between two fingers. Hinata screamed in sudden, unexpected pain.
“I’m sorry,” Haku said as he raised his weapon to deliver a killing blow.
Hey whelp. Wake up.
“Huh?”
I said wake up, boy.
Naruto opened his eyes and looked around. He was in a damp cave. It was deep, well below a comfortable lair. Uncomfortable.
He tasted chakra. He wasn’t sure how he was tasting it or how he knew what it was, but he knew it was coming from that tunnel over there. And it tasted red.
Naruto’s curiosity led him to a heavy door. Iron bars sealed with spikes of crystal, vaguely ornate but undoubtedly strong. And the red chakra came from…two red, evil, gigantic eyes that had just opened. “I didn’t expect you so early, whelp.”
Naruto took a step back. “You…you’re the kyuubi! But how…where!?”
“Still slow to put it together? We’re in your head, whelp. A bit better than the sewer I’ve grown used to. Thanks for that.”
Naruto frowned. “That guy threw something at me.”
“Dragonsbane,” Kyuubi said idly. “You didn’t think that little wish of your made you invincible, did you?”
“Well…”
“Even at their height, the dragons were merely natural wielders of chakra. I, on the other hand, am the single most powerful source of chakra you will ever witness. I have slain your adopted kind by the dozens when I have been freed. Release the seal, and I will destroy your enemy in an instant.”
Naruto gave the fox an open look of scorn. “The instant after you kill me, you mean. No thanks.”
“Fool!” The fox’s claws smashed against the cage. Naruto didn’t flinch. “You think you will ever achieve true power without me? You are just a human boy stumbling with forces you do not understand!”
Naruto suddenly realized that he was indeed in his human form in this mindscape. “You are a part of me, bastard fox,” he challenged, sounding more confident than he felt. “Whatever your power, with this seal I am the mightier of us! You will help me defeat my enemy, but you will do it on my terms!” He realized he was roaring the last, and suddenly the cave seemed smaller.
The fox’s eyes were now level with his own, although they still loomed hugely. “Very well, wyrm. You will have what you need.”
Haku’s mind blanked at the palm of red-lined scales between him and Hinata. He looked up and promptly felt like he needed to visit a toilet. Quickly.
Naruto sat on his haunches. A burning aura of red chakra visibly surrounded him in pure malice. His eyes, formerly sapphires with slitted pupils, were now blood red rubies that looked far more sinister and inhuman than anything else about the dragon.
Naruto snorted and licked his wrist, sending Haku flying into and through one of his mirrors. A swish of his tail obliterated most of the rest. “You have promised a quick end to this battle several times, ninja,” he growled. “I think it’s time we made good on that.”
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(Posted Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:32)
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