To Love You

Chapter 8: Bridge building

The boy in the mirrors is moving fast. Judging from the angles of his attack, as long as he is in his mirrors, he's moving as fast as the light that reflects him. However, as soon as he leaves his mirrors to throw his senbons, his speed drops enough for me to follow his movements. Every time he throws them, I block almost all of them with my sword. Those that I miss are blocked by Sasuke, who's standing behind me with his back against my back. Sasuke looks like he has been up all night and after the training Kaka-nii gave him yesterday, he must be near his limit.

Again the boy throws senbons. With an angry snarl I block them again. Damn them for taking what's mine! Why is he so fast? He's using his reflection to move. So he's using light? Take away the light for the reflection, take away the speed? That is what I would guess. I notice he is becoming more and more focused on Sasuke, seeing as Sasuke isn't keeping up as well as I am with the speed. But still Sasuke is keeping up pretty good. Better than I expected him to. Another senbon attack causes us to dodge in such a way that Sasuke and I are face to face for a second, before moving further to be back to back again effectively switching out positions. In that glimpse I see Sasuke had his Sharingan active. This is the first time he has been able to do so. A strange sense of pride comes over me, but another senbon attack draws my attention back to the fight.

I can see frustration slowly building up in the boy. I might not be able to see his face because of his mask, but his movements tell me enough. The movements are beginning to become slighty erratic. But with the erraticness the attacks also become more unpredictable. Soon after a few more attacks, he manages to hit Sasuke with a few senbons, drawing the small amount of blood that senbons are able to. I hear Sasuke give a small pained moan as he starts breathing a bit harder. He really is at his limit now and I see him struggling to keep standing, let alone fend off the attacks. I need to get him out of here. Worry over Sasuke is competing with and winning from my anger towards the people that dared threaten him.

I move closer to Sasuke. "Everything will go dark soon. You won't be able to see anything for a while. Trust me, stay calm, don't move." I tell him in a low voice. I activate the seal on my leg and the light around us starts to diminish fast. Soon, we are back to back in complete darkness. I hear feet land next to me and a whispered curse. Immediately the feet start to move fast towards us. I turn around to Sasuke, placing my hand on his shoulder and push him down onto his knees with one hand, while I block the oncoming attack with my sword in my other hand. "Stay down!" Sasuke is to exhausted to resist me. The attack was significantly slower than before, but it had a lot more strenght behind it. The boy had switched from his senbons to a short sword. Crouching down low, I place one foot against Sasuke to keep check on where he is. With my free hand I start to make a Rasengan as I focus my hearing on locating the boy. The seal is strong enough to hide even the intense light given by the concentrated chakra of the Rasengan.

The silent footsteps are becoming deafening to me as I enhance my senses with Kurama's chakra. Soon I've pinpointed the boy's movement and I rush at him with my sword in front of my and the Rasengan behind me. I make sure my sword swishes through the air so it is heard by the boy. The boy sidesteps my sword, but steps right into the path of the Rasengan. Hitting him straight in the gut, I feel my hand sink into his body silently tearing apart the soft inner layers of his being. There is not even a sound from the boy. The warmness and wetness of the blood overwhelms me. The boy falls limply over to me and I let him crumble to the ground, my hand sliding out of him in his fall. I hear the ice mirrors melt and dissolve around us. Channeling chakra into the seal on my leg, I release the light again. For a second, the light is blinding before my eyes adjust to it again.

A heart-wrenching scream sounds from behind me. "Nooo! Haku!" Zabuza is running towards Haku and I step back to Sasuke. Sliding my arm around his waist, while I pull his arm around my neck, I make sure to get Sasuke away before Zabuza arrives at our location. I shunshin to where Sakura and Tazuna are and release Sasuke from my grip. Quickly glancing over Sasuke, I make sure he's not severely injured. Kaka-nii appears next to me, a little worse for wear but further he looks fine, and we watch as the stone cold Kirigakura no Kijin, Momochi Zabuza cries his heart out over the death of his companion, Haku. His arms are broken, he is bleeding badly from several wounds and his signature sword lies forgotten not far from him. He will not live long even if there was help for him.