Zabuza stared at the Genin before he made hand sign with one hand, his other one keeping Kakashi trapped.
A Zabuza clone emerged from the water, causing Naruto to shiver.
"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja. When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't faze you, then you may be called a ninja. When you've become so deadly, your profile is entered in my bingo book, then you may have earned the title ninja. But to call upstarts like you a ninja, is a joke." The clone lifted his hand up in front of him, resulting in fog surrounding him and disappearing from the Genin's view.
Suddenly, the clone kicked Naruto with his foot, causing Naruto to fly backwards towards the ground. His headband also falling in the process.
The Zabuza clone stomped on Naruto's headband. "You're just brats."
"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, worried for her teammate.
"Listen! Get the bridge builder and run! You can't win this fight! He's using all his power to keep me in this prison. So he can only fight you with his water clone. But the clone can't go far from his real body. If you get away from him, he can't follow. Now run!" Kakashi ordered from the water bubble.
"Even if we do run, Zabuza would just follow us until he has wiped us all." M/n muttered to himself.
"We've got to do it!" Sasuke charged towards the clone, throwing a bunch of shurikens at him.
The clone swiped them away using his sword. He looked up and saw Sasuke falling down into his direction.
"Too easy." The clone grabbed Sasuke by his neck and threw him onto M/n, who winced at the impact.
"Sasuke, M/n! No!" Sakura yelled in worry.
"Out of all places, he threw you at me." M/n grumbled, sitting up in pain. "Great, now my back hurts."
"He got Sasuke!" Naruto saw Zabuza in front of him. The Genin tried to crawl away but he saw his bandaged hand. He remembered the promise he gave a while ago.
Naruto let out shaky and aggressive breaths as he looked up at the clone. He slowly got up from the ground. He gripped his healed wounded hand in a fist.
Suddenly, Naruto charged towards the clone, letting out a war cry.
"Huh? Naruto, no!" Kakashi yelled, alarmed at Naruto's action.
"Naruto! What in the world are you doing?!" Sakura screaming as she gripped her hair out of panic.
The Zabuza clone laughed. "Fool."
The clone punched Naruto with ease, sending the blonde Genin over towards the group were.
"Naruto, you injured?" M/n asked as he helped Naruto get back on his feet.
"What were you even thinking, charging at him by yourself? Even Sasuke could get to him. We're only Genin. We can't defeat a Jonin. What did you think you'd accomplish by that?!" Sakura scolded him.
Naruto had wobbly swayed side to side, revealing his headband. He had retrieved it from Zabuza's clone.
"Hey, you... the freak with no eyebrows. Put this in your bingo book— The ninja that will become Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." Naruto panted as he wrapped his headband around his forehead. "He never backs down. His name's Naruto Uzumaki."
'Oh, damn.' M/n smiled.
"Alright, M/n, Sasuke. Listen up. Can you both hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Naruto." M/n pushed his hair back, getting a clear vision.
"I got a plan."
"Better not be a plan to get us killed." M/n remarked.
"Be a little supportive, won't you?!" Naruto whined, wanting to bonk his best friend's head for such little faith he has in him.
"All right. Now, guys, let's go wild!" Naruto then secretly began to tell the plan to the two male Genin.
"Okay, ready? Let's bring this guy down."
The Zabuza clone let out a fell and raspy laugh. "Big words for such a little man. You think your plan's going to keep you in the game?"
"What are you doing? 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!" Kakashi yelled from the water bubble.
Which fell upon deaf ears.
"Bridge builder?" Naruto looked at Tazuna, his eyes asking for a response.
"Well, I- I guess this all happened because of me. Because my desire to live. But I won't let that stand in your way now. Forget about me, and do what you have to do. Go ahead and fight to save your sensei."
"Wow, you aren't as bad as you look. I'm humbled." M/n commented, sounding surprised at Tazuna's words.
"All right. You hear that?"
"Yeah, believe it. Y'all ready?"
"Ready as getting a discount at the mochi store."
The clone laughed. "You really haven't learned anything, have you? Still playing your little game, pretending to be ninja. When I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents."
The Genin all gulped, except M/n, who was just zoning out, thinking about taking a long nap when he gets back home.
"Zabuza, the Demon!" Kakashi stated, staring hard into Zabuza.
"Oh, so I was in your book too, huh?" Zabuza hummed, glancing at Kakashi.
"Long ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist, also known as Blood Mist Village, before a student could become a ninja, it was one final test." Kakashi stated.
"Hm, you know about the graduation exam?"
"What graduation exam?" Naruto asked, curious in what they were talking about.
Zabuza just laughed, which made Naruto more intrigued. "What's the big deal, anyway? We had graduation test too."
Zabuza laughed again.
'Why does he keep laughing? Such a creepy guy.' M/n looked at Zabuza with a weird face.
"Did you have to kill the other students to pass?" This made Naruto and M/n gasp in shock, not expecting to be told that. "Imagine, young ninja like you, eating together, training together, and then comes the final exam. Only they changed the rules. Kill or be killed, and can't stop while your opponent still breathes. He was your friend, shared your dreams! Now, it's him or you."
"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." Kakashi informed.
"What's he saying? What evil? What kind of change? What caused the terror?" Sakura asked, her patience almost running out.
"Without pause or hesitation, young boy who was not even a ninja approached the class and took down over 100 other students." Kakashi finally said.
"It- it felt so- good!" Zabuza suddenly hit Sasuke on his stomach using his elbow. As soon as Sasuke hit the ground, Zabuza rammed Sasuke's stomach with his elbow again. Sasuke yelled in pain as he coughed up blood.
"Sasuke!" Both M/n and Sakura yelled.
The clone stepped on Sasuke's stomach and grabbed his huge sword. The clone laughed at him. "You're nothing."
M/n saw a few wooden sticks nearby. He grabbed them and shoot them up in the sky. He focused some chakra on his feet and jumped.
With all his might, he kicked the sticks into Zabuza's direction. Zabuza avoided some sticks but he got stabbed by one on his shoulder.
"I hope you get splinters. Can you even get splinters? Eh, doesn't matter." M/n got kicked by Zabuza.
"I'm going to kill you, kid." Zabuza grabbed the stick and pulled it out from his shoulder. Water oozed out from his shoulder.
The rouge ninja pointed his large sword at M/n.
"M/n!" Sakura yelled out, concerned.
"Stop right there!" Naruto put his fingers in a hand sign. "Shadow clone Jutsu!"
A bunch of Naruto clones surrounded the Zabuza clone. Zabuza gripped his sword as he glanced around the clones.
All the clones took out a kunai knife and got in position. "Here we go!" They all jumped, pointing their knives at Zabuza.
The ninja swung his sword, throwing all the clones off of him.
Tazuna and Sakura gasped in surprise.
"His skills are too advanced. He's too powerful. There's no way to defeat him." Tazuna commented.
All the Naruto clones disappeared one by one, until the real Naruto was left. "I'm not giving up. I've still got this!" He reached into his bag of weapons.
He grabbed a fūma shuriken and threw it towards Sasuke. "Sasuke!"
Sasuke grabbed the Shuriken and glared at the Zabuza clone. He positioned the four blade Shuriken in front of him and said, "Demon wind shuriken- windmill of shadows!"
Sakura chuckled excitedly as M/n hope the plan would work.
'If this doesn't work, I give up.'
"A shuriken? You'll never touch me with that." The Zabuza clone mocked at Sasuke.
The Uchiha jumped into the air and flinged the foldable Shuriken to the clone.
The clone was confused when the shuriken missed him. His eyes widened as he saw the shuriken go straight into the real Zabuza.
"So, you pass the clone and aim for my real body. Smart. But not smart enough." Zabuza grabbed the shuriken with his free hand. Zabuza then saw another shuriken coming towards him.
Everyone watched as they saw the shuriken get closer to Zabuza.
Zabuza jumped over the flying shuriken. "I told you a shuriken can't touch me!"
Sasuke smirked while M/n was praying the plan won't get them killed.
The shuriken transformed into Naruto, who was holding a kunai right behind Zabuza.
Everyone except Sasuke and Naruto gasped, including a surprised Zabuza.
"What?"
"Eat this!" Naruto yelled as he threw the kunai with all his might.
Zabuza had to take his hand out from the water bubble to avoid getting hit by the knife.
But he has too slow. The knife managed to cut a slit under his eye, while also hitting the Zabuza clone, destroying it.
"I'll destroy you." Zabuza growled as he swinged the shuriken around his hand. He was about to throw the shuriken towards Naruto, when out of nowhere, Kakashi grabbed the shuriken, stopping Zabuza to attack Naruto.
Kakashi glared at Zabuza from under his wet hair. Water dripped down his headband onto his clothed nose. He grunted as he stared at Zabuza.
In the background, Naruto fell into the water.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura gasped with relief.
"I knew you could do it!" M/n grinned as he clapped.
"As if. I saw you being all scaredy cat minutes ago!" Tazuna pointed at the h/c haired boy.
M/n snapped his head at stick his tongue out. "Shut up, old grandpa!"
"Naruto, that was an excellent plan. You've really grown, haven't you?" Kakashi said as he was still on his guard in front of Zabuza.
Naruto laughed as he then began to explain how he used a clone to disguise itself as a shuriken and attack Zabuza, while also getting Zabuza's clone.
"Woah, he got smarter. Well thats a first." M/n laughed as he crossed his arms.
"Don't brag. You just lucked out." Sasuke nonchalantly said.
"The whole thing was just a fluke." Tazuna said angrily.
"I got distracted and lost my grip on the water prison." Zabuza said.
"That's me when I'm trying to solve my delusions."
"Don't flatter yourself. You weren't distracted. You were forced to let go. 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, while Naruto was still in the water.
Sasuke turned to his two companions. "Sakura, M/n, you know what to do."
The three of them stood in front of Tazuna, protecting him.
Zabuza grunts in a mocking tone as he folded the blades, pressing them on the back of Kakashi's hand.
Kakashi groaned as the blades went in his skin, blood dripping down his hand. With force, he knocked the shuriken out of Zabuza's hand.
Zabuza and Kakashi jumped away from each other.
Zabuza began to make hand signs. Kakashi copies him as he opened his sharingan wider. They were both doing the exact same hand signs at the same time.
"Water style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Zabuza and Kakashi simultaneously said.
Two dragons emerged from the water. They let out a roar before they started to fight. This created massive waves to be thrown at the field.
"Uh-oh." M/n almost got pushed back into the waves if it wasn't for Sasuke holding onto his jacket.
The two water dragons were still battling with each other.
Zabuza and Kakashi were still fighting with each other. Kakashi was blocking Zabuza's huge sword with his kunai.
'Something isn't right.' Zabuza thought as he remembers how Kakashi and him made hand signs at the same time. 'The sharingan can comprehend and replicate the enemy's technique. However- both jutsu occurred simultaneously. Could he?'
Zabuza and Kakashi bith leaped back. They ran around at the same direction. Zabuza stopped, so did Kakashi. Zabuza raised his arm, Kakashi copying his moves.
"He's not just following. He moves the same way at the same time." Tazuna said.
"How's he doing that? How, Sasuke?" Sakuras asked as she looked at the said boy.
Sasuke only stood in silence.
M/n suddenly felt a small sense of chakra from behind them. He looked at the tree where he sensed it, but no one was there. 'I must be going crazy.' He thought before looking back at the fight.
"Going to do next?" Kakashi asked as if he read Zabuza's mind. Zabuza and Kakashi changed his hand position in front of him. "It makes you furious, doesn't it?"
Zabuza glared at Kakashi with such fury. He then saw himself behind Kakashi.
Kakashi made a sign. Water revolved around Kakashi as it made itself bigger. It streamed down towards Zabuza in one big cascade.
The water crashed into land, with Zabuza in it.
M/n grunted as he covered his face from the water.
When the water cleared, he saw Zabuza leaned on a tree with kunai knives implanted on his body.
Kakashi was on top of the tree Zabuza was stuck to. "This is your last battle ever." Kakashi said as he raised his kunai.
Out of nowhere, senbon needles flew at Zabuza's neck, stabbing him.
The team gasped in shock as they saw Zabuza fall to the ground.
M/n looked to where they came from and saw a figure standing on top of a tree, with a mask covering their face.
The figure chuckled.
"You were right. It was his last battle."