Zabuza dislodged his sword from the tree, and then suddenly disappeared, then reappeared, standing on the water, his left arm raised while the other formed a sign.
Naruto exclaimed, “Over there!!” Sakura shouted soon after him, “Is he…walking on water?!”
Zabuza ignored their comments, and spoke, “The finest of the Ninja Arts…The Kirigakure Jutsu.” Then he literally vanished. I pulled out a kunai from my weapons pouch and my body tensed, ready for anything that was going to happen.
Kakashi explained, “He will come after me first…Momochi Zabuza…of the Kirigakure Assassin Corps…is a famous master of the art of silent killing. Letting your guard down around him buys you a direct trip to Heaven. I haven’t necessarily mastered every aspect of the Sharingan Eye…so all of you stay on your toes.”
The Genin and I silently agreed, but then fog appeared, and the voice of Zabuza traveled along with it. “There are eight targets…throat, spinal column, lungs, liver…the Jugular vein, the Subclavian artery…kidney, heart…so many choices…what vital, vulnerable place shall I choose?” He then chuckled threateningly.
I could feel my entire body shaking from the stress of this…mental abuse. I let out a shaky breath, ‘This waiting…it’s so chilling. I almost want him to do something…something to get rid of this tension!’ I looked near me, and noticed that Sasuke seemed to be having the same problem.
Kakashi abruptly cut in, pulling me from my thoughts, “Sasuke, Michiko.” We both looked up at him as he continued, “Calm down. Even if he gets me, I’ll still protect you.” He turned, sporting a closed-eye smile as he promised, “I will…never let my comrades die!!”
There was a slight silence before Zabuza spoke again, “I wouldn’t bet on that…” He then appeared in the middle of our formation, “Game over.”
Kakashi quickly stopped Zabuza, but caused the entire group to fall in separate directions. I sat up as fast as I could to see Kakashi holding the kunai he had stabbed Zabuza in the chest with. The Zabuza in front of him turned into water as another appeared behind him, and Naruto shouted, “Sensei!! Behind you!!”
Kakashi turned right as Zabuza swung his sword, and he was cut literally in half. A scream was lodged in my throat, until ‘Kakashi’ turned into water. A doppelganger. Just as Zabuza realized this, the real Kakashi came from behind him with a kunai, and placed it on the assassin’s neck as he threatened, “Don’t move…game over.”
Both Naruto and Sakura pronounced their relief, until Zabuza started to chuckle, “Heh-heh-heh…heh…you think it’s over? You just don’t get it…it will take more to defeat me than mimicking me like an ape…a lot more.” Kakashi stayed silent, the surprise apparent on his face, “Heh-heh…but you are good! In that short time…you duplicated my water doppelganger technique, and by making your doppelganger say something you’d have said yourself…you ensured all my attention would be focused on it…while you yourself used the Kirigakure technique of hiding in the mist, watching my every move! Too bad for you…” The real Zabuza suddenly appeared behind Kakashi, “I am not that easy to fool!”
The Zabuza in front of the Jounin once again was a doppelganger, and the real one swung his sword at the Konoha ninja, but he ducked down in time to miss it. Zabuza lodged part of the sword into the ground, and used it to propel himself, and kick Kakashi in the chest, sending him flying into the lake. Zabuza went to move toward him, until he noticed caltrops on the ground, and disappeared as Kakashi resurfaced, obviously dripping wet.
The former Mist ninja appeared behind him, and formed hand signs as he said, “Hah! Gullible fool! Art of the Water Prison!”
Kakashi looked over his shoulder, but it was too late, and was trapped in a sphere of water, Zabuza’s hand inside of it to control the prison. He continued, “I thought I could go underwater and regroup, but it was a tactical error!! Heh-heh-heh…that prison is inescapable. You’re trapped. You running around free makes it too hard for me to do my job. I’ll finish you later…after I’ve dealt with all the others…Art of the Water Doppelganger!”
A clone formed in front of our group, the nearest person to it was Naruto. Zabuza spoke scornfully, “Heh-heh-heh…little ninja wannabe. Trying so hard to fit in, you even wear a Hitai-ate headband. But a true ninja is one who had crossed and recrossed the barrier between the lands of the living, and the dead. Clothes don’t make a shinobi. You need skills good enough to rate a listing in my bingo book of enemies…before you deserve to be called ninja. We don’t call your kind ‘Ninja’. We call them…” He vanished, and then kicked Naruto, the Genin’s Hitai-ate falling off his head. I immediately took a step forward, “…Brats.”
I gritted my teeth, “Bastard.” I muttered under my breath, my revulsion barely contained.
Kakashi then shouted, “Everyone, listen! Take Tazuna and go!!! It’s a fight you can’t win!!! If he wants to hold me in this water prison, he can’t leave this place. If his water doppelganger gets more than a certain distance away from his real body, he loses control of it. So get out of here!”
I stepped as close as I dared to the edge of the water, and the Zabuza clone, and shouted, “What do you mean, ‘get out of here’?! You say you won’t let any of your comrades die! I’m not going to leave mine!” I gripped my kunai tightly in my hand, “Not again.” I said quietly before charging at the clone, but I disappeared halfway, and reappeared behind him.
I wasn’t fast enough though, and the clone caught me by the neck with one hand, and lifted me clear off the ground. I heard Kakashi yell something along with the other cries from the Genin, but I couldn’t focus as my lungs burned from the lack of oxygen. The kunai in my hand slipped, and fell to the ground with a small thud.
Zabuza chuckled darkly, his face a couple inches from mine, “Like I said, brats.”
He took a kunai, and stabbed it into my stomach, then threw me away from him, and I landed on my back some feet from him. Probably the same distance he had kicked Kakashi. I coughed violently, each cough racking my body, and managed to sit up somehow, putting a hand to my neck, and the other to my stomach. With a grunt, I pulled the kunai out, blood seeping from the wound, staining my shirt and hands. The oxygen seemed to force itself into my lungs.
Before I realized what was happening, Naruto charged at Zabuza again, Kakashi yelled, “Stop, you fool!” Zabuza sent the blonde skidding backwards on the ground.
Sakura started to shout at Naruto, “What were you thinking, tackling him by yourself! You think you’re so cool, but junior ninja like us can’t…” Then we all noticed he had something in his hand. His Hitai-ate. I stood up slowly, the taste in my mouth metallic, like copper. Blood, I figured out quickly.
I joined where the others were at as Naruto stood up as well, blood dripping from his mouth as he spoke, “Hey…you…what’s life like without eyebrows, freak? Got a new listing for your bingo book right here!! A guy who is going to be the next Lord Hokage of Konohagakure Village,” He raised his headband, and fastened it back on, “Uzumaki Naruto! Konoha-school ninja!” He paused, “Sasuke! Listen up. There’s something I want to tell you!”
“What is it?” Sasuke responded as Sakura looked slightly astonished.
“I have a plan.” The blonde replied, and Sasuke’s lips curved into a small smile.
“Hmf…so, it’s time for some teamwork?”
“Ok. Let’s get busy.” Naruto said confidently, turning to look back at the Uchiha. “Time for us…to rock n’ roll…!” He exclaimed after a while, wiping the blood from his mouth.
Zabuza spoke, “Heh heh…you’re very sure of yourself, but…do you really think you stand a chance against me?”
Kakashi immediately shouted, “What’s the matter with you? I told you to run. It’s over…it was over the second he caught me! You have to do your duty. Keep that in mind. We’re here to protect Mr. Tazuna!!”
Naruto glanced at the man mentioned, “Gramps?”
Tazuna spoke after a slight break, “What? Let’s face facts. The truth is, I got us into this mess by lying…I’ve had a real long life, and it would be wrong to let you four kids get yourselves killed trying to save me. So you go ahead…give this fight everything you’ve got.”
Sasuke smirked, “…So that’s it!” Naruto grinned, “Are you ready for this?”
Zabuza let out one of his signature laughs, “Apparently you don’t care whether you live to get any older! Playing at being a ninja like it’s a child’s game…I, however…” He raised his left hand, the look in his eyes crazed, “By the time I was your age…had already dyed these hands in my enemies’ blood…”
The entire group gulped, including me as a shiver ran down my spine. Kakashi exclaimed, glancing at the mad man, “The demon…Zabuza!”
The Mist ninja responded, “It would seem my reputation has preceded me.”
Kakashi explained, “Long ago…in The Village-Hidden-in-the-Mist—also known as ‘The Village of the Bloody Mist’…the final step toward becoming a full-fledged ninja was the most inhumanly difficult test imaginable.”
Zabuza cut in, glancing at the trapped Jounin, “So…you’ve heard about our little graduation exercise.”
Naruto questioned, “…’Graduation exercise’…?” Zabuza just chuckled, “Wh-what ‘Graduation exercise?”
Zabuza looked up directly at Naruto, and answered, “It’s a kind of ‘killing spree’…among classmates. Students who’d been friends, eating from the same dish, as undergrads were divided into pairs who were forced to fight against each other…to the death. Think of it. Comrades who had trained together, lived together, shared each other’s every hope and dream…”
Kakashi continued explaining, “Ten years ago, the elders of the Village-Hidden-in-the-Mist…were forced to enact a sweeping reform of their barbaric graduation ritual…because of the appearance, during the previous year…of a human fiend who made reform essential.”
“What kind of reform?” Sakura asked, although she didn’t receive an answer right away. “What are you talking about? What did the fiend you’re talking about do?”
“Without a moment’s hesitation…without any hint of a qualm…a boy who hadn’t even qualified yet as a ninja…butchered over a hundred members of that year’s graduating class.” Kakashi continued. I kept stoic on the outside, ‘Oh my god! How can anyone do that?’
Zabuza grinned manically, and I knew what he was even before he reminisced, “Ah, yes, good times…I used to have such fun.”
Suddenly, he elbowed Sasuke, sending the boy into the air, and then with his arm, smashed the Uchiha into the ground hard. On impact, Sasuke coughed up a lot of blood, and Sakura screamed his name. Zabuza put his foot on the Genin’s stomach as he said, “Time to die…”
Naruto quickly made some doppelgangers, all armed with kunai. Zabuza started to un-sheath his sword as he commented, “So…doppelgangers, eh? And quite a lot of them…”
“Ready or not--!!!” All the clones exclaimed at once before they tackled the Mist ninja, but he responded by swinging his sword, sending the clones flying.
While he was skidding, Naruto grabbed his backpack, and searched inside it, handing whatever he found to Sasuke. The raven-haired boy halted, and exclaimed, “Demon Wind Shuriken!!! Windmill of Shadows!!”
He then launched into the air, and threw it, to which the water clone yelled, “Shuriken are useless against me!”
The shuriken went past the clone, and towards the real Zabuza who stated, “At least this time you’ve had the sense to zero in on my true form,” He caught the shuriken with his free hand as he exclaimed, “Amateur!” That was until he noticed a second shuriken, aimed lower. “A second shuriken in the shadow of the first shuriken…!” Zabuza then jumped to avoid it, “Still an amateur!”
The second shuriken transformed into Naruto behind him. I had to say, I was a little surprised. Naruto threw a kunai at Zabuza, who had to pull his hand out of the water prison to dodge it barely, the kunai skimming his cheek. Zabuza turned around, arming to throw the shuriken in his hand towards Naruto, but Kakashi stopped the blade spinning by using his hand, and then glared up at Zabuza.
“Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura exclaimed.
“…Naruto…your scheme was brilliant…you’ve matured…all of you…” Kakashi spoke as I thought, ‘I wasn’t aware I needed to, but okay.’
Naruto explained his plan, which I wasn’t particularly interested in, until Zabuza said, “So…you made me fly into such a rage that I unraveled the spell holding the water prison together…”
Kakashi corrected him, “No!! You didn’t drop your own spell. It was broken…from without. Just so you know, the same spell won’t work on me twice. Your move.” They separated from each other, and Kakashi began to copy every hand signal Zabuza made before they both shouted, “Water Style! Water Dragon Missile!”
The water dragons collided, causing massive waves on the shore, which swept up all of us. A huge geyser-like explosion shot up from the water, and when it disappeared, Kakashi was deflecting Zabuza’s sword with a kunai. They pushed away from each other, and were doing the exact same moves.
“…Through them all!” Kakashi spoke randomly, but was obviously scaring Zabuza. “…Got that sickeningly evil look in his eye…right?”
“Feh…you’re a pale imitation.” Zabuza stated, but Kakashi finished for him with, “I’m the genuine article. No mere copycat stands a chance against me.”
Zabuza’s eyes widened even more before he said, doing hand signs with Kakashi copying him; “You mimic me like a parrot! I’ll close your beak for good!”
Zabuza suddenly paused, before Kakashi finished the sequence, and shouted, “Water Style! Giant Waterfall!” A huge tornado of water appeared, sending Zabuza backwards into the forest, and colliding into a tree. Kakashi perched on one of the branches. “That’s that.”
The Mist ninja glanced over at him, “…What…can you see the future…?” Kakashi responded with, “I foresee…your death.”
Before he could kill Zabuza, two senbon needles came out of nowhere and went through Zabuza’s neck. A person appeared their face covered by a mask, standing on a branch in an opposite tree, “Heh heh…your prediction came true.” Unafraid of the newcomer, I slowly went over by Kakashi as he checked Zabuza’s pulse. The stranger continued, “Thank you for your help…I hope you don’t mind my interfering. But I wanted the satisfaction…of putting Zabuza out of his misery myself!”
“The mask is familiar…correct me if I’m wrong…but aren’t you a shinobi hunter from the Village Hidden in the Mist?” Kakashi inquired.
The stranger responded, “Well, aren’t you the smart one?!”
“A shinobi hunter?” I questioned, now standing next to Kakashi, my arms crossed loosely over my chest with one hand covering my wound.
“I am, indeed, a member of the elite tracking unit from the Village Hidden in the Mist. It is our responsibility—and our art—to hunt down and deal with the rogues and the outlaws.” The masked foreigner answered.
Naruto stared at the hunter, and then Zabuza back and forth before exclaiming, “What’s going on here?!! Who are you?!!”
Kakashi stood as he said, “Relax, Naruto, he’s not an enemy.”
Naruto continued, even as Kakashi was walking, “That’s not what I asked--! I mean…what I mean is—he killed Zabuza…who wasn’t exactly a pushover…but still got taken out by a guy who’s only about my age! Like it was nothing! What, do we suck or something? What’s up with that?!”
Kakashi walked over to Naruto, as did I after I gave the boy in the tree a second glance, and I heard Kakashi say, “Oh. Well, you have my sympathy. I can see where a thing like that would be hard to accept…but it’s a fact…you’ll have to live with.” He put a hand on the blonde’s head, “This probably won’t be the last time we run into a kid who’s both younger than you…and stronger than me.”
“…Your battle is over, for now…and the remains must be disposed of…lest they give up secrets to our foes.” The stranger spoke as he picked up Zabuza’s body, “Well then, I must be off.”
Once the masked boy left, Kakashi repositioned his headband to its right spot, and announced, “Now! We still have to escort Mr. Tazuna the rest of the way to his home. Let’s put our best feet forward!”
He started to walk as Tazuna exclaimed with a laugh, “You poor kids. You must be so humiliated!! But never mind. You can lick your wounds at my house.”
I noticed along with the rest of the group that Kakashi had fallen. I went to help him, but my vision started to blur, all the colors mingling into one before everything went black.