6 Chapter 6 : The demon of the Hidden Mist.
(team 7)
Because Tazuna was just a simple old man, the team moved at his pace. The journey to the Land of Waves took several days as they were followed by Obito's clone.
When this clone was summoned, Obito's chakra split in two so if Obito normally had now several times more chakra than Naruto , this simple clone was a monster.
He followed them from afar to watch over his brother and noticed that they were followed by two ninja from the country of water but he wasn't worried, Just because he's looking out for his brother's safety doesn't mean Naruto is weak, far from it.
The group was walking and Kakashi was explaining some facts about the Land of Waves when they passed by a puddle, Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke noticed that there was something inside with a faint signature of chakra, they stood on guard and continued walking when from the puddle, two ninjas from the land of water came out each with a metal gauntlet both linked by a bladed chain.
They wanted to attack but a Kunai thrown by Naruto immediately passed between them, they noticed the explosive tag attached to the Kunai but it was too late.
*BOOM*
With a big explosion, the medium-level explosive tag inflicted heavy damage on the demon brothers and Kakashi praised Naruto for his quick reaction.
"He reacted faster than me…" Sasuke commented with frustration in his head as he looked at Naruto then at the two badly injured enemies on the ground with horrible damage to their bodies.
Kakashi: An explosive mid-rank tag ! Wasn't that a little too violent, Naruto?
"I was only able to do those, low rank tags are boring to make." Naruto said nonchalantly surprising the others.
Sakura: Stop talking nonsense you braggart, you may be talented but making explosive tags is far too complex.
Kakashi: Naruto, did you really make them yourself ?
"I don't see the point in lying to you. Regardless, I'm still far behind my brother..." he said as he walked towards the two enemies on the ground with a kunai to start interrogating them.
Sasuke, realizing what Naruto was capable of, couldn't help but tighten his grip and thinking about what he had just said about Obito, he couldn't help but contain his frustration.
Even though he was recognized as a genius, realizing that there were ninjas of his age even stronger than him frustrated him thinking of the power he had to acquire for his revenge, he was too prideful to ask for advice to Naruto whom he considered a rival so he thought of Kakashi.
Kakashi himself while listening to Naruto couldn't help but be both impressed but slightly frightened by the Uzumaki twins. He thought about Obito and what was said about the child even within the Anbu, he was frighteningly genius and Danzo wanted him more than anyone at the root.
Minutes later, Naruto came back to them with a serious face.
"Old man, why the Richest Man in the Known World Wants To Kill You? You've been hiding information from us about this whole matter and I really hope you have a good reason..." Naruto said with a bit of anger while pointing his kunai at Tazuna, he had just extracted information from the demon brothers.
Sakura: Hey, Idiot Naruto, isn't it okay to threaten our client? And-(interrupted)
"I'm not in the mood Sakura, if you don't have anything useful to say then shut up. This is the last time you raise your voice at me, I'm nice but I have my limits." He declared coldly looking at her like trash, that look is the same one Obito had on her, it's the same one the twins received during their childhood.
Kakashi asked Tazuna to tell them everything and he sincerely apologized before telling them everything about Gatou and the bridge. Then, they continued on their way while further behind them, a silhouette approached the demon brothers.
After crossing the end of the sea in a small boat to reach the land of waves, they walked in a small forest towards Tazuna's house when in a bush, Naruto felt a chakra signature and threw a kunai at it.
Kakashi: Naruto?
"I felt something there but nothing more..." Naruto said before going to search the bush to find a white rabbit with thick fur.
Sasuke: It was just a rabbit, Mr genius.
"I don't know much about rabbits but their fur isn't normal at this time of year ." He said as he removed his kunai from the animal's bloodied skull.
Kakashi: He's right, it's June and he's sporting a winter coat. It's as if he had been kept in a cage and away from the sun only to be released with the use of something, a jutsu.
Naruto + Sasuke: Body switching…
" WATCH OUT!!" Sakura shouted as she dove at Tazuna to put him down while the others also ducked to let the large spinning sword that had been thrown towards them pass.
The blade of the saber stuck into a tree trunk and Zabuza came to rest on the handle.
"Gosh...Zabuza Momochi, the Démon of the hidden Mist." Kakashi muttered as he stood up and wasted no time before lifting the patch over his eye to reveal his sharingan, surprising Sasuke greatly while attracting interested. The threat was serious so Kakashi left no stone unturned and prepared his dojitsu.
" Kakashi Hatake, the copycat ninja of Konoha. I'm sorry for you but this old man is mine." Zabuza said as he released a murderous intent that paralyzed Sasuke and Sakura but Naruto wasn't affected by that, he had faced this kind of thing dozens of times before with Itachi and especially his brother.
"Kakashi sensei, who is this idiot with his lame sword?!" Naruto asked nonchalantly and Kakashi asked him to step back and protect Tazuna with the others since Zabuza was strong and Naruto nodded.
He immediately woke up the others under the influence of Zabuza's murderous aura to remind them of their mission and take a triangle formation around Tazuna to protect him, he didn't try to play fearless and Kakashi praised his practicality.
"The sharingan...he has the sharingan..." Sasuke said with a frightened expression.
"Hmm those are the eyes your brother had when he was training us, I imagine you're bothered by that but we have a mission Sasuke and now our lives may be at stake, it's better to have a clear mind ." Naruto reminded him.
"Who do you think you are? My mind has never been so clear and this is the last time you talk to me about my brother. Next time you talk to me about him, you and I will face each other and unlike the academy, we will put our lives on the line" Sasuke replied while his eyes displayed a single Tomoe sharingan.
"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura was scared by him as Naruto warned him about what was happening to his eyes.
Zabuza jumped with his sword to a nearby lake where he stood with his saber behind his back to begin focusing his chakra.
After a series of mudras, he used the Hidden Mist Jutsu which enveloped the surroundings with a thick mist and Naruto wasted no time before summoning 3 shadow clones who reinforced the surveillance.
Zabuza, as a good assassin, moved towards them and appeared above the small group but one of Naruto's clones saw him and with his kunai, he deflected the sword's strike when with great speed, Sasuke appeared in the void to kick Zabuza but he exploded into a mass of water, it was in fact a water clone.
Naruto : BE CAREFUL !!
Zabuza finally appeared on the ground to deliver a powerful sword blow that was going to kill them all but in the void, Sasuke threw two kunais linked to wires, Zabuza deflected them with his blade but with one movement from Sasuke, the wires moved and the kunai linked to the handle of the executioner's blade.
"Katon: Fireball Jutsu " Sasuke breathed fire which quickly followed the path of the cables before consuming Zabuza but unfortunately this one was also only another water clone.
It was behind Kakashi that the real Zabuza appeared and he gave a blow with his saber that Kakashi dodged but exactly the same tim, two hands came out of the ground to grab Zabuza's ankles and push him into the ground until his hips .
It was Naruto who had used the technique that Kakashi himself had used against Sasuke on the day of the survival test with the bells, the moment he summoned his shadow clones, the real Naruto sank into the ground without anyone knowing.
With a special kunai , he made two long slashes on Zabuza's thighs who couldn't defend himself because his arms were out and Kakashi on top wasted no time.
"Well done Naruto..." He praised him before placing his foot on Zabuza's hand which was holding his saber to immobilize him, he took out a kunai but when he wanted to attack Zabuza, two senbon were lodged in the latter's neck, surprising Kakashi who stopped his attack.
They looked in the direction the attack was coming from to see a masked Ninja with long hair on a tree branch.
"Please forgive me, ninjas of Konoha. For Kiri's honor I had to finish this renegade myself, I hope you understand me. The ninja said as Zabuza painfully tried to look directly at him before succumbing to his injury.
Kakashi took his pulse and confirmed Zabuza's cardiac arrest.
Kakashi: Your mask, you are a hunter-nin from Kirigakure.
" That's right. Now I'll be able to accomplish my mission and you will be able to continue yours in peace." Haku said as with a shunshin he appeared near Zabuza's body to begin extracting him from the ground.
He explained to them that in order for Kiri's secrets not to be discovered, he had to take the body with him. Then he disappeared, bidding them farewell.
Kakashi closed his eye before breathing heavily, using the Sharingan was draining a lot of chakra from him. Naruto couldn't help but find what had just happened strange.
Why did this hunter-nin wait for this moment to act when he had been there for a while? Why did they confront Zabuza before him if he had already found his trail ? He was intrigued but not worried, the Kunai he injured Zabuza in the thighs with was coated in poison so he wouldn't survive long.
*** Yes, it's a parallel reality in which Naruto used a poisoned weapon in a life-or-death situation against a dangerous opponent. Don't forget that this Naruto was formed by Shisui and Itachi, two geniuses who have been in the anbu and the black ops anbu trains assassins and spies***
A few kilometers away under the shade of a tree, Haku gently laid Zabuza down before taking out an array of ninja medical tools.
He took pliers to try to remove the senbons from Zabuza's neck but Zabuza woke up to say he was going to do it himself.
They started talking, Zabuza complained about his leg pain while cursing Naruto while Haku examined the wounds to start healing them.
Haku: The mist has cleared, next time you can get through it.
"Stop worrying so much about me, next time I'm going to kill Kakashi and those brats, I just need a lot of rest and-(stops)" he stopped talking to start coughing up blood.
Haku hurriedly began to examine him to find that he had a high fever but then Zabuza's body found it more and more difficult to move.
Suddenly, Haku who continued to examine him suddenly stopped moving despite himself and immediately signaled to Zabuza that something was paralyzing him.
"Poison, it seems like I was worried for nothing and my friendly brother knows knows when to be pragmatic and react to mortal enemies." Obito came out of the shadows doing the rat mudrâ, he wasted no time and knocked out Haku before approaching Zabuza, smiling.
It was through Tobirama's modified shadow manipulation that he was able to block Haku's movements and unlike the Nara clan's technique, this one was much more advanced and the user could control or paralyze his opponent while making different moves.
Haku later regained consciousness and was securely tied up hanging upside down from a tree as Obito questioned Zabuza about Gatou but Zabuza being who he is said nothing as Obito added more slashes on his body.
Haku asked him who he was begging him to stop but Obito approached him to ask informations about Gatou, Haku hesitating to answer after looking Zabuza in the eyes received a violent slap from Obito on his mouth.
"Leave him alone *kof*(cough)" Zabuza said weakly and Obito moved closer to him to question him again but because Zabuza was stubborn he wanted to cut him more but Haku started to speak . He told him everything he wanted to know about Gatou and Obito was satisfied.
"Very well, you're released from your contract with Gatou. To reward you for your cooperation I will let you choose who between you two will survive. (to Haku) Either I give the cure to Zabuza and kill you, or (to Zabuza) I let you die and your precious sidekick lives." Obito said smiling.
Zabuza didn't say anything and looked at Haku for a few seconds but the moment he wanted to speak, Haku asked Obito to kill him and then save Zabuza as tears fell from his eyes.
Obito: What are these tears? You're in love ?
Haku explained to him what happened in his childhood, the massacre of his family, his life on the streets and how Zabuza found him. He recited a whole tearful speech to Zabuza thanking him for everything he had done for him and that giving his life was the only way to show his gratitude.
Zabuza, touched by Haku's emotion, also shed a few tears and called Obito and ask him to let him die to save Haku, that he had committed a lot of atrocities, things that he regretted but the only little of goodness he had was in Haku.
Obito looked at them without the slightest emotion and decided to act according to his instinct. He gave the antidote to Zabuza and untied Haku.
"Zabuza, demon of the hidden mist, I advise you to abandon this life to live a new one far from Kiri or the land of waves with your lover or whoever he's for you. My gesture of mercy has a reason, I know what it feels like to have a childhood like his (points to Haku who looked at him blushing). Leave and leave your sword near a grave in which you have placed some corpse, then make a new start elsewhere." Obito said before leaving but turned around to warn them.
"I'm sure we'll see each other again in other circumstances but if you ever insist on this contract with Gatou I'll kill you both" He declared before disappearing while Haku approached Zabuza to see his state .
Zabuza was not an idiot and could sense that although young, Obito was horribly strong. He was dangerous and that starting a new life elsewhere was not a bad idea, what he wanted was a peaceful life with Haku.
Kiri had turned him into a demon and he had lived a bloody life, but he was still a human at heart. Unbeknownst to him, Haku had changed several things about him and now that he had someone he cared about, Zabuza wanted to take a different path.
