“This is the end?” Zabuza begins to laugh lowly. “You won’t be able to defeat me with your usual imitation techniques, I can assure you that.” Kakashi stiffens, the blade pressing deeper into Zabuza’s throat. “I see you copied my water clone technique. You avoided my attention by making your clone speak as if it was the real you while you used the Mist Concealment technique to hide and observe my movements. However,”
Another Zabuza appears behind Kakashi. “I’m not that easy to defeat.”
The Zabuza in front of Kakashi pops like a balloon, the water splashing around. Zabuza swings out with his sword and Kakashi ducks, the blade scarcely missing the tips of his silver spikes. The blade slams into the ground, tip digging into the earth several inches, and Zabuza twists around. Grabbing the hilt with his other hand, Zabuza kicks out and sends Kakashi flying. Zabuza rips his sword from the earth’s clutches and darts forward towards the area Kakashi flew into.
I twitch. Do I distract him?
Answer: Yes. I can’t let him use his Water Prison technique.
Jumping away from the kids, I land mere inches from the large man, nails raking through the air towards the man’s skin. He swings back with his elbow and I duck, kicking out with my foot. He leaps into the air and I jump up after him, claws raking along his collar bone.
Grunting, Zabuza moves back-away from me-and holds his sword out. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“And yet you try to anyways.” I growl, crouching low.
“I haven’t even touched you.” He grunts. “How would I hurt you?”
“By hurting the ones I love.” I dash forward and duck under his block, knuckles just missing his ribcage. He dives towards the water and I growl, grabbing the blade of his sword to pull him back. I ignore the searing sensation in my hands, ignore the fresh wave of gut twisting pain and nausea as I twirl him around once and send him flying into a tree.
My blood drips to the floor, making a small puddle around my feet, and I look to my mangled hands. Blood blisters up through the puckered gash marks and stains the rest of the skin on my palms.
“Alex!” I hear Kakashi shout.
I turn towards the water, only to find my fear come true. Kakashi is entombed in a giant globe of water, staring at me with wide eyes, and Zabuza watches me intensely. The Zabuza that I was fighting with appears behind me, sword angled to slice my throat.
“I thought you didn’t want to hurt me?” I ask dully.
“I lied.”
I jerk back with my elbow, catching the clone in the ribs, and twist away from him. The sword clangs against my headband, scarcely missing the bandaged skin beneath, and I grab it’s hilt. It weighs a ton and I struggle to hold it steady.
“Kaka-Baka!” I call to the jonin. “We need to get me one of these!”
I swing out easily, the blade slicing through the clone’s neck with a single motion. Both morph into water and splash against the ground, the liquid tinged pink.
Zabuza creates another two other clones. One to distract me while the other is to kill off my students. “You three have on ninja headbands as if you’re ninja. But the term ninja is used to describe someone who has gone through numerous life and death situations. In other words, you three can call yourselves ninja when your names appear in my bingo book.”
“You three aren’t ninja.” He raises his two fingers to his lips. The mist grows thicker.
“Naruto! Sakura! Sasuke!” I shout, trying to find them through the mist. I hear the hard wet sound of something hitting flesh and slumping to the ground. Something metal clangs against the ground.
“Naruto!” I gasp.
“Everyone! Get Tazuna and run!” Kakashi shouts from his bubble. “You can’t win against him!”
“Run?” Sasuke shouts, crouching down low. “When you got caught that was no longer an option.”
I scream out as Sasuke leaps forward, all thought and reason fleeing my mind. Blindly, I hold my right arm outstretched and grunt at the tearing pain in my forearm. My nail digs into the skin, ripping a strange design into the skin.
“What’s she doing?!” Clone Number One shouts, jumping back. The mist dilutes slightly-enough for all three Zabuza’s and my kids to see me.
But I am done by then, the image of a dragon carved into my right forearm-the blood trickling freely in a spider web like fashion down my arm. My torn hands move blindingly fast and I am unable to comprehend the gestures. All I know is that I’m scared for my kids and Kakashi and I need to stop Zabuza.
“DRAGON OF INK JUTSU!” My mouth moves, the shrill words piercing through the air like a gunshot, my hands freezing in their position. My scream is answered by a loud tearing sound. It sounds as if the world was caving in on itself, the shrieks splitting my ears.
A loud roar shakes the earth beneath me. I point to Zabuza. “Destroy him.”
Zabuza chokes on a mangled gasp and jumps back away from Kakashi. A large vortex of black liquid encircles my body, hiding me completely from view. The thick liquid hardens into sleek black scales, the portion surrounding me, twisting and curling like a snake, forms a large tail.
I look up and see the massive inky black forearm of a dragon, ripped muscles coiling and tightening beneath its skin.
The dragon’s snout dips down, a burst of warm air washing over me, and then the dragon is swiping at Zabuza. I jump out of the protective circle the dragon has formed around me and run to Kakashi. He blinks and staggers back as I throw my arms around him.
“It won’t last long, but that should distract him enough to help you.” I mumble into his chest, squeezing the breath out of him.
“You really are the Artist.” He stares down at me in disbelief.
“I don’t know.” I pull back, hands clutching my head. “I didn’t mean to! I don’t know what I’m doing! I’m so lost.” The wounds on my hands leave blood smears on my forehead and in my hair.
Kakashi puts his hand on my shoulder, the other wiping some blood from my face. “Calm down. We’ll figure it out later. Right now, we need to protect our kids.”
Our kids. I nod, liking the sound of that, and we turn towards the massive earth shakes that my dragon causes.
Just in time to see Zabuza’s sword pierce through my dragon’s heart. Letting out a shrill scream, the dragon splashes down into the earth-staining it black. Kakashi leaps forward but Zabuza kicks him back and begins a full on assault with his sword and fist, raining blow after blow after blow. I leap forward just in time to see him make two other clones.
Growling, I catch the clone in the jaw with my fist.
The other clone corners Naruto, after having swung Sasuke into the nearest tree, and the real Zabuza has once again managed to capture Kakashi in another water tomb.
I see Naruto look down at his bandaged hand and almost smile. Time to fight.
Letting out a fearsome scream, Naruto runs forward. Zabuza knocks him back easily. Sakura begins to scold him but stops when she sees him starting to get up, holding his fallen forehead protector in his hands.
“You can do it, Naruto!” I shout.
Naruto struggles to stand, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. “Hey you, the freak with no eyebrows…put this in your bingo book.” He grunts, lifting the forehead protector to his forehead. “The man who will become Hokage of the Hidden Village of Konoha one day…the Konoha-style ninja…Naruto Uzumaki!”
“Sasuke, I have a plan.” Naruto says to duckbutt, who smirks.
“I can’t believe you want to work as a team.”
“Let’s go wild.” Naruto grins, flashing me a mischievous look.
---------dundundunnnnnn*wiggles fingers creepily for dramatic affect*-------
My gut twists in anticipation as I wait for them to make their move. I can’t jump in like last time and try to save them; they need to defeat him themselves. I hold my clone in a chokehold while I wait.
“You seem quite confident.” Zabuza laughs lowly, “But do you even have a chance for victory?”
“What are you doing?!” Kakashi shouts at them. “I told you to run away! Our mission was to protect Tazuna! Did you forget that?”
“Forget about me!” Tazuna shouts. “Do what you have to do to save your Sensei!”
“You hear that?” Sasuke steps up beside Naruto, smiling.
“Yeah, believe it.” Naruto grins.
Zabuza begins to laugh, chortles shaking through his body. “You really haven’t learned anything have you?” He asks as the mist begins to shroud around them again. “Still pretending to be ninja, eh?”
“You sure do talk a lot.” I comment from the sidelines, squeezing the life out of his clone.
He shoots me a dirty look but continues to frighten my kids. “By the time I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents.” He shows them his right hand.
“I killed a man…with this thumb.” I giggle at my quote.
“Zabuza, the demon.” Kakashi growls, his voice muddled by the water.
“Oh?” Zabuza smiles slightly. “You have me in your book too?”
“What do you mean?” Naruto asks, glaring.
“Long ago in the Village Hidden in the Mist, also known as Blood Mist Village, before a student could become a ninja there was one final test.” Kakashi explains gravely.
Zabuza smirks. “Do you know about the graduation exam?”
“What graduation exam?” Naruto asks. “What’s the big deal? We had graduation exams too!”
Zabuza begins to laugh again. I scowl and roll my eyes, finally doing away with his clone. Standing, I wipe my bloody hands on my clothes and clench my fists tightly.
“Did you have to kill the other students to pass?” Zabuza laughs. “Imagine, young ninja like you eating together, training together, and then comes the final exam. Only they change the rules. You either kill or be killed. You 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, graduation exam changed.” Kakashi speaks up. “One year before, a dark evil had filled the school with terror. Without pause or hesitation, a young boy who was not even ninja approached the class and took down over a hundred other students.”
“It…”Zabuza’s eyes are downcast, causing them to look like empty black sockets. “It felt…so good!” He looks up, directly into the kids eyes.
He leaps forward and elbows Sasuke, knocking the boy off his feet. Naruto gasps as Sasuke skids along the ground and Zabuza slams his elbow down into the kid’s stomach. I grimace, a shudder vibrating through my body, and fall to my knees-claws digging into the earth. My arm stings, the puckered dragon scratch pulsing with a fresh wave of pain.
‘Let me out.’ A familiar voice roars in the back of my mind. ‘You stole my body, the least you can do is let me kill him!’
I gasp and fight against the cold bloodlust that choruses through me as Zabuza steps down onto Sasuke’s stomach, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “No.” I growl, “Naruto needs to step up and put his plan into action. This is his fight.”
Zabuza begins to laugh lowly, “You’re nothing.”
“Stop right there!” Naruto shouts, crossing his fingers. “Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
As he says it, a million Naruto’s materialize-circling around Zabuza and Sasuke. “Here we go!” They all shout in unison, kunai knives poised and ready. They leap into the air. Pushing back against the voice, I stand and slowly move forward, one foot moving at a time. My body, her body, whoever’s body feels thick as if someone has replaced my blood with lead.
I grin slightly at the large Naruto dog-pile and wipe at the blood that trickles down my chin.
“Alex!” I hear my name called.
Turning, I barely miss another clone’s attack. This time, I don’t fight against the voice and let her take control. My claws rake down across the clone’s chest-shredding it. Water splashes against my face and I jump back, crouching low.
“I’ll get you out of there.” I smile to Kakashi, the one who had called my name.
Zabuza throws all the clones off of him, letting out a fierce cry, and all of the clones disappear in a poof, leaving smoke in their wake. “I’m not giving up!” Naruto cries, digging in his backpack as he skids backwards. “I still have this!”
He throws the shuriken into the air. “Sasuke!”
Sasuke catches the four bladed weapon and smiles, holding it out in front of him as he lets the blades stretch out. “Demon wind shuriken! Windmill of shadows!” He shouts.
“A shuriken?” Zabuza smirks. “You’ll never touch me with that.”
Sasuke leaps into the air. He swings it once and then throws it at the clone, the blades becoming a blur of steel. The clone looks up as the sound of metal spearing through the air zooms past him. “Huh?”
“Oh.” The real Zabuza chuckles. “So you passed the clone and aimed for my real body. Smart.”
He reaches out and catches the shuriken, grinning. “But not smart enough.”
I smile. Zabuza blinks, glaring at me. “Why are you smiling?”
The real Zabuza growls as another shuriken appears out of thin air-aimed directly for his heart. “A second shuriken?!” He leaps over it, smirking. “I told you, a shuriken can’t touch me.”
“GO NARUTO!” I shout, cupping my hands to make the sound carry further. With a loud poof, Naruto replaces the shuriken and twirls midair to throw a kunai knife.
“Eat this!” He shouts.
“What?!” Zabuza pulls his hand out of the globe-freeing Kakashi-to dodge the knife. The blade scrapes just below his eye, a trail of blood trailing through the air. Growling, Zabuza twists in the air and goes after Naruto-shuriken twirling like a windmill.
A loud clang and a sudden jerk stops him from throwing it.
Naruto lands in the water with a splash, eyes wide. Blood squirts into the air, raining down to mix in with the water. Kakashi looks up. “That looks like it hurt.” I grimace. The back of Kakashi’s hand caught one of the shuriken blades-stopping it from spinning.
“Naruto. That was an excellent plan.” Kakashi sends him a weak smile. “You’ve really grown haven’t you?”
“I knew I couldn’t beat him with my shadow clones, that was just a distraction!” Naruto starts to explain. “I just wanted to break up his water prison, I didn’t know his clone would be wreaked too! Ha, that was a bonus, believe it!”
Zabuza rolls his eyes. “I got distracted and lost my grip on the water.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Kakashi growls. “You weren’t distracted. You were forced to let go.”
Zabuza smirks. Kakashi blinks. The shuriken blades retract, folding back into one thick blade, and the pressure on Kakashi’s hand grows. More blood splatters up into the air. Kakashi knocks the shuriken away, sending it flying through the air and it soon disappears in the mist.
Kakashi and Zabuza leap back away from each other. I run into the water towards Naruto, calling out for him. He swims to my arms and I grab his hand, pulling him from the now deadly water.
“That was awesome, Naruto.” I grin, squatting down to his level as I pull him into a hug. “That was a brilliant plan.”
“You really think so?” His face brightens, the corners of his lips tugging up.
I nod and stand, ruffling his hair. “Let’s get away from the water.”
---------------thisisgoingtobeaverylongchapter-.-youluckybutts!--------------
As soon as they land on the surface of the water, Kakashi and Zabuza’s hands are moving-forming hand signs. I stand in front of the kids, forearms folded across my forehead, and wait for them to attack each other.
“Alex-sensei?” Sasuke asks.
“Hm?”
“Why did you do that to yourself?” He asks, nodding toward the marks on my forearm.
I suck in a sharp breath. “You remember earlier? What you felt?” I ask, my voice low. “Well let’s just say there was no one to stop me.”
Two twin vortexes of water fling back from the water, forming large crystal colored dragons. They curl around each other, twisting as they rise high into the air, and then go to attack each other. Large waves of water rock back and forth, rushing towards us.
“Brace yourselves.” I say in warning, locking my leg muscles tight.
Warm water shoves me back several paces, rushing around my waist and soaking my tail. Yelping, I drop my stance and grab it-terrified that I’d lose it. Naruto pushes forward through the water and throws his arms around my waist. “Don’t worry, sensei! I’ve got you!”
The water level drops until only small little streams rush around us and spray out from the dragons. Kakashi is fending Zabuza off with a kunai knife. They leap away from each other and land on the water a few paces back.
Kakashi mimics his actions perfectly, moving to the side in a circle as Zabuza does and lifting his index finger to his lips in the clone technique.
“He’s not just following.” Tazuna says behind me. “He moves the exact same way at the exact same time!”
“How’s he doing that?” Sakura asks. “How?”
“Going to do next?” Kakashi says out loud, lowering his arm as Zabuza does. “It makes you furious doesn’t it?” He sneers, hands forming a circle.
“Ha! All you’re doing is copying me! Like a monkey!” Zabuza snickers.
“You can’t beat me with your cheap tricks.” Kakashi and Zabuza say in unison. “I’ll crush you!”
I grin, another Zabuza forming behind Kakashi. Naruto goes to shout-to warn Kakashi-but I stop him, shaking my head. “Kakashi created him.”
“Huh?” Naruto blinks. “How?”
“Water style. Giant vortex jutsu!” Kakashi does several hand signs, a large whip of water rising out of the water and curling into a giant funnel. It sweeps Zabuza off his feet, the liquid tornado swallowing him whole. It whipped past us, barely missing the area that we stood in, and slammed the man into the large trunk of a tree. Four kunai knives sail through the air, piercing the flesh of Zabuza’s shoulders and elbows-staking him to the tree.
Kakashi is in the branch above him, looking as sexy as ever.
“You’re finished.” He growls as the water slowly recedes back.
“How?” Zabuza asks, leaning back against the tree. “Can you see into the future?”
Kakashi raises a kunai knife. “Why yes. This is your last battle. Ever.”
As the words leave his masked lips, three needles spear through the air and catch Zabuza in the neck-blood spurting everywhere. Everyone-excluding me-gasps and looks in the direction of the needle’s origins. A small boy stands on a tree branch; soft robs flapping in the wind.
I don’t know if I should smile or frown.
Zabuza falls to the ground with a loud thump, as still as a rock. “You were right.” Haku chuckles behind his mask, “It was his last battle.”
Kakashi jumps off the tree branch and lands beside Zabuza’s head, fingers feeling his neck for a pulse. “No vital signs.” He stands and takes a step back, eyes wide, and looks to Haku.
“Thank you.” Haku dips his head in a bow. “I’ve been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for this chance to finally take him down.”
“By your mask, I see that you are a tracker ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist.” Kakashi comments dryly.
Haku straightens. “Impressive. You’re well informed.”
“Very informed.” I speak up, fingers curling around Naruto’s collar to stop him from attacking. Haku’s head snaps to me and I can hear his sharp intake of breath.
“Hello Artist.” Haku bows to me.
I nod stiffly, making a mental note to stick close to Naruto so I can talk to him again.
“Who do you think you are?!” Naruto rips away from my grasp, pointing to Haku.
“Easy Naruto.” Kakashi walks over to the blonde genin. “He’s not our enemy.”
“That’s not the point!” Naruto whips around to glare at him. “Did you see what he did, just like that? Zabuza was huge! Like some kind of monster! And this kid, who’s no bigger than me, he brought down Zabuza with one move! Like it was nothing. I mean, what does that make us? We’re just fumbling around! We don’t know anything! How can I accept that?”
Kakashi stops in front of Naruto, hands shoved into his pockets. “Well, even if you don’t accept it, it still happened Naruto.” He leans down and ruffles the blonde’s hair like I had done earlier. “In this world, there are kids who are younger then you and yet more powerful than me.”
Haku appears beside Zabuza’s fallen form and hefts him up onto his shoulders. “You’re struggle is over for now. I must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body. They must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me.”
And with that, in a rush of wind, they disappear.
“So polite.” I have been edging forward throughout Naruto’s little heart-to-heart conversation with Kakashi and now stand beside them, ready to catch the jonin when he decides to faint. Kakashi slides his headband back over his eye as Naruto runs over to the spot where Haku vanished.
“He’s gone, Naruto.” Kakashi sighs softly. “Let it go.”
Naruto sinks to his knees and begins to punch the ground, grunting. I frown and move forward with Kakashi, both of us catching an arm to stop him.
“As ninja, the things we encounter are never easy.” Kakashi says.
“You should save your anger, for the next enemy.” I conclude for him, pulling Naruto to his feet. Naruto looks up at me for a few moments and then nods slightly in defeat.
“Alright, we’re still not finished with this mission.” Kakashi calls to the others. “We still have to get the bridge builder to his bridge.”
Tazuna lets out a small laugh. “You guys can rest at my house for the night when we reach the village.” He scratches the back of his head.
Kakashi turns to walk off. I leap forward and catch him, pulling his rigged body onto mine, and stand slowly.
Everyone gasps.
“Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura and Naruto run forward.
“He’ll be fine.” I grunt. “Let’s just get going before his fat butt squashes us all.”
God that was super long! I didn’t want to stop like half way in the middle and make this three parts so I decided to go to the end of the episode. There will be fluff in the next chapter :D and explanations! Tell me how I did! Mah hands hurt T-T oh and the picture is of the dragon!! :P
----Cloud<3