AUTHORS NOTE: Well, funny story... I guess some of y'all are still reading this and I suck at updating so I'm just going to post what I have now and post the rest of this chapter when I finish it (if any of you remember, this is a looonnnggggg part of the anime.) Also please don't give me any crap for the way I put this part together, there's a lot of parts in this battle that I feel should be included. Okay? Okay. Sorry updating has taken forever... But again, for those of you who are still reading this, I want to give you what I have so far.
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Zabuza’s appearance hadn’t changed the slightest, except for the new look of craze in his dark brown eyes.
“Guess I was right,” I smirked. “The tracker ninja is just a comrade of Zabuza’s. I am right, aren’t I, Haku?”
I could feel the ninja’s eyes bearing into and assessing me through the slanted holes in the mask. I immediately recognized the chakra from someplace other than the fight with Zabuza, and then it hit me who the person could only be. I felt laughter begin to bubble in my throat, the beautiful girl walking through the woods was the same ninja standing only a few feet in front of me. It took all I had to hold back my laughter, my stomach began to ache with its need to escape. Sasuke had been checking out a boy. I had been jealous of a boy! My lips twitched at the sides. This was golden.
I heard Tazuna let out a growl from behind our guard, “He should stop hiding under that mask and face us!” He shouted with a raised fist. I let my eyes roll. He wasn’t included in the “us” that Haku would have to face. If he could do any fighting of his own to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
“I’ll fight him,” Sasuke said in a low, deliberate voice, taking a step forward, “Tricking us with that stupid act… I hate bastards like that the most.”
A giggle escaped my lips and I quickly tried to cough to cover it up. Sasuke glared at me with narrow eyes. I forgot I was ruining his cool bravado by thinking about Haku tricking him into thinking he was a girl.
When Haku spoke, he almost sounded like a girl. His voice was so light and calm, “An impressive young man… Even though the water clones have less than a tenth of the strength of the original, it’s still impressive.”
“But we have gained the first advantage, GO!” Zabuza called, and as if on command, Haku immediately leapt into the air with a nod. He spun around violently and landed, planting his feet firmly in front of Sasuke, catching Sasuke off guard. Sasuke quickly recovered from his shock as Haku went for a roundhouse kick only to be swatted away like a fly by Sasuke. But Haku was incredibly fast. He recovered from the blow and immediately went to swing with a punch that Sasuke stopped with his forearm. Sasuke gripped a kunai tightly in his hand. They were at a standstill, pressing their arms against each other waiting for one to give in.
“Red, we’ll let Sasuke handle this one, we have to focus on Zabuza,” Kakashi ordered to me.
I quickly moved in front of Tazuna to guard him, my eyes never leaving Sasuke and Haku who were standing in the water from the clones earlier. I wanted to intervene, but I knew Sasuke could handle it. That and he’d never forgive me for getting in the way of his first real fight. He deserved it with as hard as he’s worked. But at the first sign of Sasuke faltering, I would step in.
“I don’t want to have to kill you, but you won’t stand down, will you?” Haku more so stated than asked.
A drop of sweat raced down the side of Sasuke’s face, “Don’t be foolish.”
“I see… But you won’t be able to keep up with my speed next time. Plus, I already have two advantages.”
I saw Sasuke’s eyes widen just a hair for a fraction of a second, “Two advantages?” He asked the question cooly but I could still hear a little bit of fear. It’s never good when another ninja says confidently that they have the upper hand, even if they really don’t. But Haku didn’t seem like a ninja to waste his breath on something he wasn’t positive about.
“The first is the water on the ground, the second is that I have already occupied one of your arms,” Haku’s head tilted slightly to the side, gauging Sasuke’s reaction, “You’ll only be able to run from my attacks now.”
Haku lifted his left hand to his face, holding Sasuke off with his right, and began forming signs quickly. I’d never seen anyone form signs single-handedly before, and I quickly began to recognize them.
“Special jutsu: flying water needles,” Haku breathed. The water beneath Sasuke and Haku flew up in the air and froze into sharp icicles. I watched Sasuke, I didn’t know if I needed to get involved yet. I bit down on my tongue hard, he had to have a plan… He had to think on his feet. I watched Sasuke’s chakra flow, it flew down to his legs and into the soles of his feet. He did have a plan, and all I could do was hope he could execute it flawlessly. The icicles began racing towards him at blinding speed, Haku leapt out of the way before they could hit, and Sasuke used his focused chakra to spring into the air, out of the ice’s way.
In the air, he threw three throwing stars down at Haku which Haku flipped to avoid, but just barely.
“You’re pretty slow,” Sasuke mocked. He had gotten behind Haku, “From now on, you’ll only be able to run from my attacks.”
Sasuke gripped a kunai in his hand and lunged at Haku, who abruptly spun around and ducked to avoid being cut only to be met by Sasuke’s foot kicking him hard in the stomach to send him flying back to Zabuza.
Sasuke smirked smugly, “Looks like I have the advantage in speed.”
“I can’t have you underestimating my team by calling them brats. I’ll have you know that Sasuke is the Leaf Village’s number one rookie… And the other one is…,” Kakashi paused for a moment, “the other one is the show-off, hyperactive, number one loudest ninja in the village.”
I raised an eyebrow at Kakashi. At least he tried, it could almost be taken as a compliment. But I was pretty sure Zabuza had seen enough of Naruto already to know that that was the best Kakashi could think of on the spot.
Zabuza slouched his shoulders and began chuckling menacingly, “He… He he… He, Haku, you do realize at this rate we’ll be driven back?”
Haku rose from the ground slowly and the air around us turned as cold as ice. My breath formed a thick cloud in front of me. “Yeah…,” Haku said calmly, “We can’t have that.”
Haku’s hands clamped together and formed a single seal, “Special Jutsu: demonic ice mirrors!”
The water from the clones Sasuke had been standing on shot up and froze in sheets of reflective ice and surrounded Sasuke. Haku ran forward and dove in one of the mirrors.
My eyes widened as I realized what was happening. I saw Sasuke tremble in the center of the mirrors that each showed Haku like a carnival game. “Damn it!” I screamed and sprinted towards Sasuke.
Zabuza leapt in front of me, making me skid to a stop on the slick ground that had already turned icy. “Hey, your opponent is me. Against that jutsu, he’s finished.”
“Kakashi! Go help Sasuke!” I yelled in panic.
“Already on it,” Kakashi replied as he hurdled over Zabuza and me and towards Haku and Sasuke.
Zabuza looked at me with what looked like triumph, “Is that really your smartest move, Red? Leaving the bridge builder unguarded out in the open?”
I looked past Zabuza where I could see the dome of mirrors and things flying out of them at an extreme pace. I heard Sasuke let out a blood chilling scream of pain. “Sasuke!” I cried, hoping for a response. Where was Kakashi? Why wasn’t he stopping this?
Zabuza chuckled in front of me, “Go ahead, go help them, Red. If you get past me, I kill him,” he said pointing at Tazuna behind me. I resented Tazuna so much at this point for getting us in this situation, and I vowed that if we got out a live, I’d kill him.
I swung at Zabuza, but he blocked it with his rough hands, catching my fist. I then swept my leg under his feet, knocking him down, but since he had my hand, he took me down with him. Tai-jutsu had never been my strong point and I didn’t know if I was ready to use my sharingan yet. The thought of it made my temples hurt.
I threw my elbow at Zabuza to which he quickly rolled out of the way making my elbow meet the cold concrete beneath us. I had focused so much chakra in my elbow that it left a hole in the bridge, if only I had hit Zabuza instead. Zabuza rolled far enough away that I could stand up. I reached into my pocket and yanked out a kunai knife and hurled it towards the ice mirrors where Haku’s head was sticking out, but he swiftly moved out of its way. I looked back at Zabuza who began running towards me. He suddenly stopped and looked in the direction of Haku in alarm. I looked too and saw Haku leaping out of the ice structure to dodge a throwing star, making every sheet of ice break into water, spraying me with a few icy droplets.
I looked for the thrower. A thick cloud of smoke began to disappear, leaving Naruto standing there grinning from ear to ear. “Naruto Uzumaki has finally arrived!” he yelled, “Now that I’m here, everything will be alright! The main character of the story usually shows up in these type situations and instantly kicks the enemy’s ass!”
What an idiot… What kind of loud entrance was that? And he calls himself a ninja…
The wind blew by me as Zabuza chunked four, large shuriken. “Naruto, look out!”
Naruto didn’t move, instead he looked like he was bracing himself for the blow. “Naruto, MOVE!” I squinted my eyes, trying to make me sharingan activate, but I was already running low on chakra. Come on… Come on…
I opened my eyes in time to see ice knock the shuriken into the ground.
Zabuza glared at the ice’s thrower, “Haku, what the hell is this?”
Haku’s mask never left from Naruto, “Zabuza, these children… Please let me fight them my way.”
“So you don’t want me to interfere?” Zabuza looked away, chuckling darkly, “Soft as always, Haku.”
I looked at Sasuke laying on the ground, a bloody heap… Soft as stone.
Sasuke began to stand and assess his injuries. I looked closer and saw that they were only surface scratches, nothing that was actually going to hurt him.
A drop of water came from the remaining pieces of mirrors that surrounded Sasuke… and Naruto?
“You fucking moron! If you’re a shinobi, then use your head! Why did you come inside the mirrors?! Damn it! I don’t care anymore! You’re an idiot!” Sasuke hollered.
“What did you say?! I come to save you and this is what I get?!” Naruto screamed back.
“Red!” Kakashi hollered at me from behind the ice, “Use a fire technique!”
My eyes widened as I watched another drop of water roll off the ice. Fire melts ice. I formed the hand signals and sucked the air in around me gathering nature energy. “Giant fire ball jutsu!” I screamed as I began to blow the ball of fire towards the ice. My face began to sweat from the heat. The fire surrounded the ice before disintegrating, not even phasing the ice.
“You can’t melt this ice with that level of fire,” Haku said calmly, his voice carrying to me.
I took a deep breath, trying to catch my breath. I could use my Amaterasu… But I couldn’t whiloe Naruto and Sasuke were inside. It would incinerate them.
“Kakashi! Get them out of there!” I yelled before an arm snaked itself around my neck, cutting off my air flow.
“You didn’t forget about me, did you, Red?” Zabuza whispered into my ear. My legs squirmed beneath me, trying to find some ground or something to kick. I dug my nails into his forearm. I had to be calm. “Needle Jizo,” I said through gritted teeth. My caramel ponytail shot from behind me and began incasing me in sharp hair spikes, pricking Zabuza in the process. He slung me out of his hands, making me hit the concrete hard, gasping for air. My jutsu retracted, it only stayed long enough to free me.
I glanced at the mirrors while clutching my throat, trying to ease the burn where Zabuza’s arm had been moments before. Naruto’s clones bounced from mirror to mirror attacking it.
“Hehe…,” Tazuna muttered behind us, “for a mere child to master a jutsu like that…”
“Becoming a true shinobi is difficult for me,” Haku’s voice echoed, “If possible, I don’t want to have to kill you, nor want you to kill me. But if you can come at me, I can destroy my kind heart with a blade and become a true shinobi. This bridge is where we fight to defend our dreams. Me for my dreams, and you for yours. Please don’t hate me, I want to protect someone precious to me. To work for that person. To fight for that person. To make that person’s dreams come true… That is my dream. For that, I can become a true shinobi. For that, I can kill you.”
I turned my attention to Zabuza who stared at Haku with a silent awe, but this didn’t seem to surprise him, it was almost as though he had heard all of this before.
“Sasuke! Naruto! Don’t you lose to this guy!” Tazuna shouted from behind us.
I frowned. It all made sense. Sasuke and Naruto would lose to Haku. Even if they could beat the technique, they couldn’t beat the boy. They didn’t have the strength to kill another person. Haku knew the true pain of becoming a shinobi.
“A real shinobi can’t be created in a peaceful place like the Hidden Leaf because you can’t gain the most important thing; the experience of killing!” Zabuza said.
I gritted my teeth and lunged at Zabuza with my kunai, he blocked it by grabbing it in his knife, drawing blood as the knife stuck deeper. He continued to look down at the kunai, not meeting my eye. He knew if he did, he’d be trapped in my genjutsu. But I couldn’t. I had to save it for the Amaterasu.
“Ever since he was a little kid, I taught him all kinds of fighting skills. Even facing the greatest adversity, he has succeeded. Without a heart nor fear of death, he became a fighting machine. A shinobi. And his jutsu surpasses even mine. The terrifying ability of the kekkei genkai,” he looked up to my eyes with a smirk, “I gained a high quality tool for myself, unlike that trash you hang around with.”
“You’re bragging, Zabzua,” I said through gritted teeth as I pushed the knife further, until it met bone.
Zabuza’s smirk grew as he stared at my eyes, “What’s the matter? Not going to use your sharingan? Either you’re very smart or very tired.”
I frowned. I was tired, but I had to save my chakra for the Amaterasu. It would surely melt the ice, but then again, I could kill Zabuza on the spot with it, but Haku was the bigger problem.
“Smart I guess, I have already seen through the trivial system of those eyes of yours,” Zabuza glared into my eyes with triumph. “In the previous fight, I wasn’t just getting beaten like an idiot. I had Haku hiding in the background examining every aspect. Haku is also bright. By seeing a technique once, he can usually come up with a way to defeat it,” Zabuza said raising his hand to his face, “Hidden Mist Jutsu!”
Just like before, mist covered everything. But this time, it was so thick I couldn’t see even a few steps in front of me, and more importantly, I couldn’t see Zabuza.
“What’s this super thick mist? You can’t see anything!” Tazuna yelled in alarm. I had almost forgot he was still back there, with no guard. I quickly made the seal to form a shadow clone then sent it racing over to Tazuna. I could hardly tell where he was at, the mist was formed with chakra making it near impossible to see anyone’s individual chakra. You couldn’t see anything. But that probably meant Zabuza couldn’t see anything as well.
I didn’t want to do it, but this was starting to get dangerous for me. I shut my eyes tightly and let the sharingan activate. My temples throbbed in protest. I had always had a lot of chakra, for someone my age, but then again, it was the chakra of a fourteen year old girl, and I couldn’t just go around wasting it.
I let out my breath that I was holding and felt around the ground with my feet. Air began to whistle by my and I turned around just in time to catch a large windmill shuriken.
“He… He he… Impressive you’d be able to block those, Red Flame,” I spun back around to see Zabuza standing a few feet away, his eyes tightly sealed and his sign still pressed towards his face, “But… the next time you see me will be the end of everything. You rely on your sharingan too much…,” Zabuza disappeared back into the mist and I watched his chakra disperse around me, “You acted as if you knew everything, but that prediction was wrong. Red, you can neither read my mind, nor see the future… The sharingan is simply a trick that makes your opponent think that you can. It’s basically an eye technique involving hypnotism and an attention for detail, by using those two abilities together, you can progress from copying the body to copying the mind to copying the jutsu. This is the dance that makes it seem like you can see the future.
“Your sharingan relies on eye contact, for your genjutsu at least. You literally see into someones soul and then manipulate it to your liking. Your keen eye will also copy my movements and shake my mind. Once my worry and confusion reaches a peak, you attack with some clever trick. So, the answer is simple. First, with this mist, I make that keen eye of yours useless,” I used the kunai in my hand to block a windmill shuriken flying towards me. Not being able to see was slowing down my reactions. I could only see things at the last second. I jumped back and skidded on the ground to a stop with a groan, “Hehe… and if I keep my eyes closed, I remove the chance of being hypnotized…”
“But why?” I asked, “You can’t see shit either!”
“Have you forgotten? That I am a genius at silent killing, taking down an enemy just by their sound.”
I held my breath, careful not to make any more noise. But I was groaning so loud on the inside. Plus I was worried about Sasuke and Naruto and Kakashi too… It had been so long since I had been in a battle with such dangerous conditions. Relax… Think… What would he go after?
“He’s coming!” I heard myself shout. My clone!
I raced to Tazuna and my clone in time to see Zabuza slash through my clone with his sword, making the other Red disappear with a pop.
“Even with that impressive eye, your ability to read my movements is dimming,” Zabuza said glaring down at me. I could see his smile forming through the bandages that covered his mouth, “Hehehe, let me enjoy this Red. I want more fun as I return the favor from our last battle. Don’t worry about the brats, Haku has probably killed them by now. Plus I’m about to send you to the same place as them. You can apologize to them in the next world for lacking the strength to protect them,” Zabuza said, clutching tightly to his sword and laughing like a maniac.
“Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi won’t be defeated so easily. I believe in their strength. Naruto’s determination and Sasuke’s the offspring of the Leaf’s most outstanding clan, just like me. It’s in our blood,” I retorted.
“You mean…?”
“Yeah… Sasuke Uchiha. Another genius ninja who has a kekkei genkai of the Uchiha clan running through his veins.”
“Another offspring of that tragic clan… But that’s the same for Haku. Nobody has ever defeated that special jutsu,” Zabuza said as he began to fade back into the mist.
“He disappeared again!” Tazuna shouted.
Thank you, Tazuna, I would’ve never seen that. “Tazuna, I need you to stay here, don’t move! I need to end this fight.”
“Huh? Oh… Yeah!” Tazuna replied.
“Can you hear me Zabuza?" I yelled into the mist, "You seem to think I survived in this world only because of my sharingan, and that’s where you’re wrong. I am a member of the Anbu Black Ops, I am more than just my eyes."