Moments earlier…
A blonde man looks from the fathomless darkness of the shadow of the cave. He sees a great fox arguing with a dragon, smaller but no less fierce, kinder but just as passionate. The dragon dissolves as Naruto returns to the waking world.
The memory of a man steps from the shadow. “He is coming further than I could have imagined.”
The beast he lived with snorted. “Is he even yours anymore?”
“At his core, otherwise he would have been scaled throughout in this place. Only when he tried to intimidate you did his form override his self.”
“Perhaps. But you can’t know.”
“True,” the man said happily. “But at least I will see it for myself.”
Zabuza and Kakashi had all but forgotten about their fight. The dragon that was Naruto was radiating demonic chakra to such a degree that he was visibly glowing a poisonous red bonfire of pure chakra.
“Haku,” Zabuza whispered, wincing. Whatever this superweapon of the Leaf was, it couldn’t be a dragon of legend. The legends of dragons were only slightly more numerous than the legends of dragon hunters after all, providing anyone with time and foresight a comprehensive list of draconic vulnerabilities. Haku’s herbal knowledge served them well…but the legendary dragonsbane clearly just made the beast stronger.
Retreat or die. Those were Zabuza’s only choices. But if he turned his back to Kakashi to flee, retreat and die would be his epitaph. He needed an exit strategy, and he needed it now.
Kakashi’s thoughts were completely different. Unlike Zabuza, he knew exactly what he was seeing. If the NineTails got control of Naruto’s body…well the fox was still stronger in its natural state but the jinchuriki seal allowed the demon to use the mind of its host. Rather than a mindless beast with violent tendencies, the NineTails would be a true monster with the cunning of a fox and the intelligence of a dragon. A dragon with Naruto’s own devious intellect at that.
Kakashi knew he had to stop his pupil…but he honestly had no idea how.
Naruto didn’t think. He acted. The ice stylist wasn’t nearly wounded enough for his liking. The dragonsbane still flooded his system, waging a painful war against the kyuubi chakra that forced his flesh to function. He would make Haku feel that pain. He grinned evilly and rushed forward, then slapped Haku with one foreclaw. As before, Haku went flying, but instead of bridge he found himself crashing against Naruto’s hindleg. Then he felt himself stomped into the bridge.
Haku wasn’t dead. He wasn’t even unconscious. He wished he was. Everything hurt. Naruto was fast. Haku was pretty sure that if he wanted to, the dragon could play a volleyball game with himself playing every position on both sides. And Haku himself as the ball.
Hinata stood transfixed, unable to move, to speak. This wasn’t Naruto. His chakra, the chakra that announced him no matter what flesh he wore, was a broken thing of hate and evil. The thing in Naruto’s body wasn’t Naruto! “Stop,” she whispered. “Please stop.”
Haku idly noticed the crater around his body the shape of one of the scintillating dragon’s hindpaws and got to his feet wobbly. He didn’t raise his arms or his head, but waited for the end. “I’m sorry, Zabuza-sama,” he whispered.
Naruto lunged to make a killing blow, images of a dozen and three ways he could kill the deliciously broken-spirited ninja running through his mind STOP!
Naruto’s claws gouged deep scores in the bridge and he dissolved into chakra smoke to emerge from the white cloud as his annoyingly orange-clad human self in a tight roll that killed the last of his momentum to leave him standing inches from the once again taller Haku, looking up at him with his eyes once again a calm blue. “Buh?”
Distantly Naruto felt the fox howl with rage at the lack of bloodshed. He realized quickly how close the fox had come to controlling him…but something…some small thing had forced him to stay his hand.
Haku finally raised an arm to grab his chest. He bit back a scream as he felt a rib floating freely among his organs. “I lost,” he said, unable to bring his voice above a whisper from the pain. “Kill me and be done with it.”
Naruto blinked. The fox wanted Haku dead, Haku wanted himself dead… “But why would I want you dead?” Naruto asked. “What does that get me?”
Haku opened his mouth to answer when he suddenly realized he didn’t have one. He certainly couldn’t fight anymore. Without medical attention, he was a walking deadman already. If he tried to pull energy from his body to mold any real amount of chakra in this state, he would probably kill himself. “Well, what else do you do with an enemy?”
“Beat them,” Naruto said confidently. He gave Haku an innocent grin. “And I think I already did that!” he boasted loudly.
Haku stared at the little boy who wielded such terrible power.
A few yards away, Zabuza turned back to Kakashi. “You teach your weapon mercy?” he sneered.
Kakashi shook his head and smiled. “No one in Konoha taught him how to be merciful.”
“I’m no weapon!” Naruto bellowed. The adult ninja turned to see Naruto, his face twisted with a much more pitiful kind of anger than bloodlust. Kakashi saw all the confused loneliness of Naruto’s short life in that face. And with it was the sick realization of how the fear and hate he resented was, if undeserved, at least understandable.
Zabuza looked coldly at the genin. “Then what is that headband doing on your head? A shinobi is nothing but a weapon. Kill your emotions, kill your enemies, and die in battle. That is the fate of those who live in the cursed world of ninja.”
Naruto jabbed a thumb at his headband and walked slowly towards the missing-nin. “This is a symbol of acknowledgement! This is the headband Iruka-sensei gave me from his own head! It doesn’t matter what people want a ninja to be! I will be myself!”
Zabuza looked Naruto over. “You’re weak,” he said. “Without that strange chakra, the dragonsbane is doing too much damage to let you fight. Give up.”
“Naruto,” Kakashi warned. “Stay back. I’ll handle Zabuza.”
Naruto looked from jonin to jonin and hesitated. They were right, after all. It would be easier to let Kakashi take Zabuza down. But something about what Zabuza said was familiar. A fragment of memory, words from a past so long ago it was before his first memory…
“Then die!” Zabuza yelled, swinging his sword at Kakashi the instant he was distracted with Naruto.
But somehow Naruto was there with three clones, the four of them holding the sword back. The clones poofed out a moment later and Naruto shakily let go of the sword with his fingers soaked in his own blood. The words echoed from the past and out his mouth. “Give up…on me giving up!”
Kakashi took full advantage and shoved his kunai into Zabuza’s shoulder, even as Naruto’s words registered. But no, Naruto hadn’t met Jiraya since the Yondaime fell. It had to be a coincidence.
Zabuza grunted in pain and his sword fell to the ground. His shoulder was dislocated and wedged out of its socket by the kunai. The entire arm was useless and even if he got a chance to heal it would take months to use it as a sword arm again. He looked to Naruto. “Who the hell are you anyway?”
“I am Uzumaki Naruto, and someday I will be the Hokage!”
Zabuza hung his head and smiled. “Then that day I stop working in the Land of Fire, Uzumaki. Unless you plan to kill me, Sharingan Kakashi?”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Kakashi admitted.
Gato looked around. “Those idiots should be done with the engineer’s family and those ninja brats by now. Come on, men. Time to pay Zabuza his fee.”
Two hundred thugs grinned at the idea of beating up the arrogant ninja after the Leaf nin exhausted him.
Sakura looked around. “That was easy!” she said brightly.
Shino didn’t say anything. His allies had drained the chakra from most of their opponents quickly, leaving them helpless. Apparently Gato only sent a few common thugs to take out Tazuna’s family.
Sakura didn’t quite grasp that yet. “Wait until Sasuke hears I beat one all by myself. He’ll be so impressed!”
Shino knew better than to correct her.
Hinata eeped. “Kakashi-sensei,” she called, “a lot of people are coming!”
Kakashi broke off from threatening to kill Zabuza. “How many?”
Hinata frowned hard. “Ummm…one hundred ninety seven.”
“Crap,” Kakashi muttered. “Sounds like Gato’s going to smother us with raw numbers.”
“And my contract with him is over too,” Zabuza grumbled. He spared a bit of chakra to raise mist over the bridge. He looked to Kakashi. “You know, even if you kill me, Gato will just hire another to take out the bridge builder.”
“Hmm. And what do you suggest?”
Zabuza smiled. “We eliminate Gato. Your mission is complete, I take his home as my payment.”
“And leave you in his place to make life hell?” Naruto accused.
Zabuza looked mildly affronted. “What would I want with any of that? I’d take anything I can use and sell the rest.”
“Oh.” Naruto thought that over. Still evil and self-serving, but not that monstrous. “Kakashi-sensei?”
“Not the worst idea, but Gato chose a good moment to attack. I can’t fight without chakra exhaustion.” Kakashi could take on a fair number of the thugs, but he knew if he did, Zabuza could break this truce and run. Ninja were like that. “How are you doing?”
The old Naruto would have lied and said he could take them all on. “I can take them, Kakashi-sensei,” he said confidently.
The new Naruto was a better liar. Truth was his body was still weak from the poison, and he was lucky not to be dead. Without the kyuubi chakra flooding his system, he doubted he could walk to the end of the bridge without help.
Hinata blinked. “That might not be necessary.”
“Eh?”
“TSUGA!” Kakashi twisted slightly as a large man flew through the space he was occupying.
Zabuza looked down. “That’s Gato,” he said dully.
The ninja all looked back up the bridge. The last of the mist finally broke to reveal Kiba and Sasuke standing over a lot of broken bodies. Their enemies had been ripped apart, burned, or simply beaten into submission. Five were still standing, but even as they watched, young Sasuke wove a dance of death around them.
“Sasuke’s not that good,” Naruto commented, confused.
“Neither are you,” Kakashi pointed out.
“Hey! I’ve been training really hard on that control stuff! I can use my kekkei genkai a lot better now!”
“So can Sasuke,” Kakashi said simply.
“Eh?” Naruto yelped, spinning around to look at Sasuke more closely.
Blue eyes with slitted pupils met red eyes with a single tomoe each. Sasuke smirked and went into a round kick so graceful and perfectly timed to his opponent’s rhythm that it looked almost lazily casual in its execution. There was nothing casual about how the man flew backwards from the hit, though.
And suddenly, everything was quiet. Well, except for Gato moaning on the bridge.
Zabuza planted his sword on the rich man’s throat and rested against it like a cane. The moaning stopped with a rather sick gurgle. “I think, Kakashi-san, that our conflict is resolved.”
Kurenai blinked as she reached the rendezvous point she left Sasuke and Kiba at. “Where are they?”
Tazuna pointed at the bridge. “Maybe they’re back there?”
Kurenai sighed. “Yeah, that would be like them.”
“Can I ask a question?”
“Sure.”
“Why am I still in a net?”
Kurenai turned around and blinked at Tazuna. She had completely forgotten about that. “Er, sorry?”
Tazuna sighed. At least she didn’t do something weird like stuff him into a frog’s gullet to get him off the bridge.
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(Posted Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:30)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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