A strange new life

2.20

“I’m here to sa—”

Zabuza reacted faster than Haku or even Kakashi. His arm blurred, the man threw a handful of shuriken at Naruto, cutting off the brat hollering.

Kakashi-sensei hadn’t been in a position to stop Zabuza. Nor did I think Naruto could evade the attack. But I had been watching. Like Kakashi asked. I didn’t miss the man drawing the weapons from the hidden pockets of his clothing. I done the same. My own shuriken intercepting Zabuza’s mid flight.

Zabuza turned his stare at me. Naruto looked confused as always.

“Good job, Hinata-chan.” Sensei praised. I huffed, those praise wouldn't work on me, but please praise me more!

Naruto, unfortunately, instead of attacking the still stunned Haku, walked inside the mirror prison. “Yo, Sasuke! I’m here to rescue you.”

I couldn’t pay attention to the unfolding drama and idiocy over the ice prison. The mist thickened, blocking my vision. I couldn’t even see in front of me.

“I’ve seen through your tricks, Sharingan Kakashi. You can’t copy what you can’t see. You can’t use a genjutsu on me if I keep my eyes closed.”

Kakashi growled. “But you can’t see anything either, why?”

“Hehe, you’ll never know. Farewell, Sharingan Kakashi.”

I listened to that byplay between the two experienced Ninjas. All the while, Zabuza crept closer to me. It was deception after deception. The man was still taking me for a fool. He was trying to bait me again, because he knew I could sense chakra. A clone formed behind Tazuna, the swooshing sound of that big sword cutting air.

A second bundle of chakra flickered in front of me. This one bigger. The real Zabuza. Kakashi’s chakra had also started moving. He wouldn’t get here on time, or he would put himself at risk to do it. While all these thoughts passed through my mind, the world seemed to have slowed down. I learned my lesson: No holding back on chakra anymore, not on a fight. I hadn’t know that flooding my head with chakra helped me think faster.

Without seals or sounds, out popped a shadow clone. Clone-chan flickered. She tackled the water copy out of the way, and left a kunai plunged in its sides.

I also flickered. I was behind Zabuza, who had started his swing. The man noticed. Of course he noticed. Don’t know what I expected. I aborted my attack, flickered back toward Tazuna. Clone-chan moved back as well, and the two of us faced the mist, ready for any other attack.

Zabuza moved deeper into the mists, Kakashi-sensei hot in pursuit. Zabuza’s plan had been a good one. With no jutsu to copy, Kakashi held no advantage over the missing-nin, and Zabuza was clearly more adept at silent assassination.

The stalemate broke with Naruto agonized yell. “I’m gonna kill you!!”

Dense, evil, violent, and angry chakra like I’ve never felt before pushed against me. It felt like I was inside a volcano and it intent hadn’t even been directed at me. Wind billowed, the mist moved. There was a sound of breaking glass.

Kakashi and Zabuza moved at the same time. Several other bundle of chakra appeared out of nowhere, surrounded the missing-nin.

The billowing wind from where Naruto was pushed the mist away. There was a small rolled up scroll nearby Kakashi. A bit further away, Zabuza stood trapped between several of Kakashi’s ninken.

Back that the ice prison, Haku stood, mask broken, eyes vacant. Naruto with his fist trembling just shy of hitting Haku. The ice mirror prison had broken. Sasuke lay in the middle of the bridge, in a pool of blood, pierced by countless senbon. Was he dead? Shit.

“You’re just a kid.” Naruto muttered. The oppressive chakra dispersed like it never been there. His eyes, which were red, returned to baby blue.

“Why did you stop?” Haku asked. “I murdered your friend, and you still spare me?”

Naruto seemed to realize the issue, finished his punch. It was nowhere near strong enough to take out Haku.

Both Naruto and Haku got on an argument. I looked around. Zabuza was trapped, there was no more mist. I looked at Clone-chan, nodded at her. She flickered toward Naruto’s battlefield. Kakashi-sensei had ordered me to keep the boys safe, this felt like a failure.

The sound of thousand chirping birds filled the air. My head snapped toward Kakashi. His right hand sparkled with lightning. Wait, wasn’t that chidori?

“I shall say this once more, give up, your future is death.” Zabuza looked defiant, not willing to back down. Kakashi dashed forward.

There it was, the moment I had been waiting for.

The argument between Naruto and Haku escalated, they looked about to trade blows again, but Haku disappeared. Nearby Kakashi, a mirror formed out of water, from the mirror popped Haku. I moved. Pushed as much chakra as I could in my legs. The world blurred, the wind stung.

Haku stepped out of the mirror at the same time I tackled them out of the way. Haku held several senbon, threw them at the rolled scroll nearby Kakashi. I moved my arm in the path of the needles, couldn’t caught all of them. We crashed on the ground. I punched down, hard. Had to take Haku out of the fight. The ninken holding Zabuza disappeared in a puff of smoke, the missing-nin twisted his body. Kakashi’s chidori attack, instead of piercing Zabuza’s heart, cut the man’s shoulder, cleaving the left arm off.

I flickered again, left Haku on the ground. Their eyes had lost all semblance of fight. Zabuza, chad shinobi, even after losing an arm didn’t miss the opportunity to attack. The man was a true ninja. With his remaining arm he swung his Guts sword.

Before the weapon could build momentum, I flickered by his side, punched him. I put everything in that one attack. I felt the bones in my hand break, the pain lacing my hand and arm. It did what it was supposed to do. Zabuza never expected my attack. The man toppled over, sword clattered onto the bridge.

I flicked back toward Haku soon after. Their eyes were still vacant. I could hear the murmured whispers, the pain in the voice, see the tears. “I’m sorry Zabuza-sama, I failed you, I’m sorry—” Over and over again. Damn, that was sad.

Meanwhile, Naruto had come to checkout on Sasuke. Clone-chan gave him a thumbs up. Sasuke was alive, even if he looked more dead than alive.

Kakashi looked at me strangely. I wasn’t sure why, so I also gave him a thumbs up. He just shook his head. Walked to Zabuza, tied the man up. He slapped some sort of seal on the man’s injury. Was that to prevent blood loss? I needed that one for myself.

I did the same with Haku. I tied them down. Haku was insensate, didn’t even put a fight. Naruto started crying, happy his boy friend was alive? Zabuza didn’t stay unconscious for long. After waking up, the man glared at me from the place Kakashi kept him tied up.

“It’s over Zabuza. There’s no way you can beat me now.”

The missing-nin looked at the scene, all the blood, his torn out arm lying nearby, Haku subdued and tied up.

Before he could say anything, another voice broke the silence. “I wonder how the fight is going.”

There on the bridge, stood a short man with spiky hair and black sunglasses, dressed in black formal clothes. Huh, I knew my own ninja uniform wasn’t that strange.

“Well, he’s certainly made a fine mess out of you. What a pity Zabuza.” The midget said.

“What are you doing here, and why did you bring all of them?” Zabuza growled.

The midget laughed. “This was the plan all along, I never intended to pay you, Demon.” Gato said the word demon like an insult. “All those insults and trouble. I’ll kill you all, and solve all my problems myself.”

Zabuza glared at Gato, and his fifty-something gang thugs.

Yeah, that did it. Kakashi sensei thought the same. He walked to Zabuza. “Do we still have a reason to fight?”

“No.”

Kakashi-sensei nodded. Untied the missing-nin. Helped the man up.

Haku stirred under me. Their eyes regaining a bit of their focus. I kept them pinned and tied. I didn’t think Haku was in any condition to join Zabuza. I hadn’t gone through all this stress to let them die at the end. No, Haku could stay put. There were no ninjas among the crowd.

“We’re tools, and we die as tools.” The missing-nin said. He picked up his sword, let if fall against his shoulder. With one hand seal, mist billowed out again. “But even tools have their pride.” Chad Zabuza didn’t even seen to notice his missing arm. Trippy.

I always thought Zabuza hadn’t fight us with real intent to kill. That moment I realized how right I was. It was a massacre.

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