Stoking

"Haku."

The boy whirled around, senbon in hand at my sudden appearance.

Using the excuse of going for a look up in the sky and leaving Tazuna in the Naruto clone's care—knowing that there shouldn't be any attacks in my absence, as we had planned ours for later—I had backtracked to the hut for the first time in person.

With the jounin awake I couldn't waste chakra on Shadow Clones anymore, the surveillance back on in full.

The brown-haired boy blinked at my black raven self, blinking owlishly several times.

"It's me," I explained, smile tugging at my lips as I shifted back into a form he would recognize.

His mouth made a perfect circle as he blinked again, lowering the long needle. "Uchiha-san. What is it?"

Haku still didn't like me, obviously.

But armed with some recent realizations beneath my belt, that made perfect sense. Back before there had been people who I could immediately tell I would never, ever, like or get along with. There was no reasoning or logic behind the feeling, but it pretty much always bore true, though to what extent that was a self-fulfilling prophecy was difficult to say.

So I was pretty sure the kimono-wearing boy must have felt something like that since the first moment we had spoken to each other.

He was kind—so kind in fact, that he couldn't even kill his enemies in battle.

Meanwhile I was the type who'd gleefully be plotting a massacre while fighting down the smiles. Cats and dogs, oil and water. I guess I had more in common with Zabuza than I'd thought.

"The plan needs some adjusting—Kakashi woke up."

"Oh... The Copy-nin?"

Having seen Kakashi fighting Zabuza to a standstill, putting his master on the back-foot, must have left an impression on the boy, so I couldn't blame the hesitation.

"Anyhow, I need to talk to Zabuza. Don't have much time, either."

So this was more of a courtesy than a necessity. The boy probably wouldn't take kindly to me being in Zabuza's company alone. Especially with all the talk of brainwashing, as even now with my eyes black as pitch, he was avoiding looking at my face.

"Of course."

We headed for the bedroom.

"Back so soon?"

"Kakashi's awake." I cut through the bullshit. "But he's still useless. A bit better off than you, but not good enough to fight. So we need to pull it off soon. Tomorrow, at the latest."

Zabuza growled, probably guessing where I was going with this.

"Of course, you won't be up for it, even with me playing along and taking it easy until we're out of sight in the mist." That had more or less been the plan to buy time, until Gatou showed up and we could get on with the sham.

"So, you're going to take my place, is that it?" he asked, eyes narrowed.

"Right. I got a good look at your style last time and I'm strong enough that my team can't even touch me, even with a Transformation jutsu in place." I inhaled, closing my eyes. "But Kakashi's got a whole pack of hunting nin-dogs and he's got a good look at you with his Sharingan. A half-assed fake death won't fool him, especially since you already pulled it once on him and he'll be looking for it. But, since Gatou is going to show up to kill us all and we need to scare the piss out of him, anyway..."

"Ah," he exhaled breathily, almost a pleased sigh. "You're going for a proper bloodbath, aren't you? Can't tell the dead apart if you go crazy, right?"

Yeah, he saw right through me.

"So, I was thinking that I'd just blow up a part of the bridge. Put a lot of it on fire and collapse some of it, make a real mess. I've got a history for that back home and I never did get told off for blowing up training ground 3, so..." I shrugged. "I'm gonna need Haku to procure something to fuel a fire, since I can't move around too much right now. Oil, tallow, wood chips or dust, whale fat or something like that. Enough for a fire big enough to leave a heap of unrecognizable corpses behind."

"Haku."

"I shall think of something, Zabuza-san." the long-haired boy replied immediately.

The bedridden Kiri-nin nodded. "He'll have it by the bridge by tomorrow."

I perked, having a thought...

"Go ask Gatou. Say you're moving out tomorrow and that you want to blow up the bridge. Something like, 'we're crushing their spirits in one blow' and ask him to get you something. It'll get him to move out tomorrow, too."

Haku looked at Zabuza for confirmation, before nodding with a put-upon expression. It seems no one liked Gatou around here.

I smirked. "And be extra unbearable. Piss him off, so he reaaally wants you dead."

"I do not think much more will be necessary. Not after you broke his hand..." he pointed out.

"Hey... I wasn't going to let a scumbag like that touch Zabuza-san with his filthy hands."

Haku exhaled through his nose, not quite huffing at me, conflicted as whether to be disapproving or thankful.

I chuckled at his reaction, before moving on.

"And I had another thought... Regarding your big-ass sword." There wasn't going to be any nice way to say this... "You're gonna have to leave it behind. If it vanishes it'd be pretty suspicious. Heck, even if we left it behind like some grave marker for you—for whatever reason—it'd still probably vanish within the week once word got around that you'd died and left it behind."

Zabuza glared at me, so I kept talking.

"So how about I take it? Call it a double-bluff, since there's no way you'd have parted with it willingly, and an insurance for our continued cooperation. Sure, maybe it gets back to Hidden Mist if I left it be, or then—"

"The seversword stays with me," he growled, teeth bared. "You will use that eye of yours to hypnotize one of the mercs to take off with it and we'll pick it up afterwards. Send him here with it."

I raised my hands, defensively. "Alright, alright."

Annoying, but not a real problem.

"And since the plan relies on the Hidden Mist jutsu..." He continued and I nodded. "Then, as it will not only be my reputation on the line, I'll have to make sure you do a proper job of pretending to be me."

"Right, I think I got a pretty good look the last time—" I begin to say.

"No." He cut me off, looking to Haku. "Get me up on this bed. I can't do this while lying down."

"Zabuza-san..." Haku grimaced at the order, but moved to help the older Kiri-nin up nonetheless.

"You called it a petty trick, didn't you? My killing intent?"

"Uh..."

He grinned, sharpened teeth that much more intimidating than bandages. "You're right, of course. It is just an empathy field. But if you're going to do it, you'll do it right. Bring out those eyes of yours."

I nodded, a lens of ruby covering my vision, and then—I took a step back, the sheer bloodlust crashing down on me despite the complete and utter lack of visible mist. My leg started shaking by themselves and my breathing hitched. Holy shit, is that an actual aura coming off of him...?

It wasn't chakra, but something was steaming off of him, coalesced intent and malice, drawing into the shape of a menacing demon, all teeth and hate. Like billowing cloth, or smoke, rising up to tower over all of us the same face that had been the last Gatou had seen in canon.

"Haha," I laugh weakly, forcing myself to step forward. "So that's why you're called a demon."

He's using some kind of variant of the Hidden Mist jutsu, sealless. Probably the mastered control over water elemental chakra, to create that shroud. It's not the direct conductor that the full-blown version is, but it's still an amplifier of his killing intent...

"This... This could get pretty handy. I, ah..." Whoa boy, there, getting a little woozy. "Appreciate the demonstration. But I won't be able to do it. Really bad water elemental affinity, you know."

Same reason why Kakashi went bye-bye after just a few big water jutsu; takes way too much juice, compared to a more favorable element.

Zabuza grunted, more resigned than annoyed. Probably more at his situation than at the complaint.

"Haku will shroud you with mist."

"A combination technique?" I blinked, excited by the prospect despite the air of tangible violence still nipping at my sense of self-preservation.

But there was jutsu to be learned; no time to worry about dying now.

He grunted again, allowing the black shroud hovering over him to dissipate. Then he looked at his apprentice, who nodded and began to run through handseals rapidly; a seventeen seal string completed in seconds. Again the mist coalesced and thickened around Zabuza's body, wafting and billow and taking the shape of murder incarnated.

If I can get my own elemental chakra figured out, I could probably make a variant of it for myself... I thought, nodding. Outwardly, I said: "Yeah, I think I got it."

"Show me," Zabuza demanded as Haku released the shroud.

Seventeen seals flashed by again as he repeated it, this time on me. It settled like a physical cloak on my shoulders, seeping through my shirt like ice-cold steam. I could feel how it wanted to latch onto me, so I reached out with my chakra and connected it.

No, I hijacked the chakra like I had the Hidden Mist jutsu earlier.

And then I turned to Haku and Zabuza, showing teeth as I made my malice manifest.

It was disappointing, I could tell. Neither of the two Kiri nin reacted to it.

"Gimme a sec," I said and closed my eyes.

I'm going to be committing a massacre tomorrow... I ruminated on that.

On the practicalities involved in such a thing.

Running in a kunai through a skull, watching the life bleed out of them, looking dispassionately by as their limbs flailed. The image felt hollow.

My brow furrowed.

I'd seen a fair bit of gore before, having been by more than one car crash and having had to perform sutures out in the field once. Once I saw a deer get hit by a train and practically get vaporized. I had gone fishing and hunting before, and felt the shakes after I had killed something; tasting the sensation of ending another living being's life. I had cut flesh, gutted and dressed dead fish and game, running a knife through that which had died due to my will.

But those were different, lacking the proper context. I rarely felt anything about such things afterward.

For much of human history, stuff like that were simply everyday occurrences. Wild beasts killed people, accidents happened, and you had to kill animals to eat.

It wasn't the stuff of nightmares and waking terrors.

I needed the desire for harm unto others and the sadism to enjoy it happening. Not just the sensation of wrenching a snared rabbit's neck. Maybe all those shock and gore videos from back before would come in handy now.

I'd seen Mexican cartel killings, Islamic propaganda executions, and Russian idiots running around killing sleeping bums with screwdrivers and hammers in the forest. Shootouts on security cameras and go pros and dash cams, running raid footage in the Ukraine and middle-east. I had analyzed African or Caribbean machete fights, thinking that I could derive some truths about fencing and swordsmanship from the effort, utterly trivializing them from the context of actual human suffering. Muggings gone wrong, drive-by shootings, home invasions, strangers with knives on the street and other snuff films on the darker reaches of communication...

No matter where you were, violence and suffering were never truly far.

Not the hot hate of the monkey brain howling and hollering nor the desperate animal lashing mindlessly just to survive, but something of a higher order. Malice aforethought.

I was going to burn a bunch of people alive tomorrow.

So, something like this, maybe?

Haku blanched, taking a step back. But Zabuza remained dispassionate and still.

"Hmph. It will have to do."

I shrugged—a passing grade from the Demon of Mist was more than good enough for me.

That evening as we returned to the house, Naruto didn't say anything about my leaving Tazuna on the bridge with just his clones.

I had half-expected him to gripe about my running off when I had made it explicitly clear that at all times someone had to be with the bridge builder. That clones alone weren't enough in a serious fight. But maybe he was feeling too relieved by Kakashi being awake again, and so didn't bring it up.

Or so I'd thought.

He just waited until we were going to bed; the night's first watch left to Sakura.

"Hey... Sasuke?" he whispered in the dark.

I opened my eyes wearily, looking at the ceiling.

"...Did you fall asleep already?"

"Yes."

Naruto scoffed, not falling for it.

"...Why do you hate Kakashi-sensei so much, anyway?"

I turned to look at him. Did I hate Kakashi?

Not really. I found him to be an annoyance and I hadn't ever wanted anything to do with him... But I by no means hated him.

"I don't."

"Well, you sure act like you do..." Naruto peevishly objected.

"What, do you want a damn list of my issues with him? Or shall I write you a song?" I snapped.

Tomorrow was going to be big and I wanted to sleep, damn it. I had the last watch, so I wasn't going to get all that much rest anyhow, though it still gave a decent 6 hours of rest. If I fell asleep now, anyhow.

"...Well, uh, what's wrong with him?" Naruto asked and I could already tell he had plenty of examples of his own in mind from the tone of his voice. Everybody took umbrage with the jounin's bullshit.

I sighed, raising a hand to my face and rubbing my eyes.

"I... looked into him. Ever heard the expression 'opposites attract'? Well, people who are too similar can repel, too."

"...Huh?" Naruto sat up in his bed, now looking at me with naked curiosity.

"We've both lost everything, but we handled it differently." Namely, the loss of my old life didn't even make me skip a beat. Canon Sasuke... Eh, I thought as I paused in my whispering. "He didn't even want this team... And my first thought whenever I look at what he does, is that he's just trying to find a decent place to die. Like he's not willing to slit his own throat, but if he ends up dying while doing something halfway heroic, then he'll jump at it. That even if he dies to something half-assed and dumb, he probably wouldn't mind it too much."

That got Naruto quiet.

It probably hadn't even occurred to Naruto to think about things like that.

"Also, he's an ass. He's late every damn time? Seriously? What the hell?" I scoff.

There was a long silence and I almost thought I would get to fall asleep. But Naruto wasn't done yet. He was probably only just getting started, too.

"If you know all that... Then why aren't you trying to help him?" the blond asked and I could tell he was serious.

"...Why should I? Like I said, I don't even like him."

"But—But we're on the same team! We're all living in the same village...!"

I sighed. Now he was shouting.

"So?"

He sputtered.

"We're only on the same team because of our grades. Kakashi is only our teacher because of chance." Probably, anyhow. I'm pretty sure I don't need a teacher for the Sharingan, and he's sure as hell made no overtures regarding it... "And if it weren't for our teams, we'd never see each other again after the Academy, because we live on the opposite side of the village. I mean Sakura aside—she's probably dumb enough to try and continue stalking me. I've seen a few of those idiots hanging around the compound..."

I trailed off, forgetting where I was going with this. "So why should any of that matter?"

"B-but..."

"There's veterans from the previous Shinobi World Wars and orphans from the Kyuubi attack in the village," I said, going for a weak spot to end this damn discussion already. "Who are suffering just as much, if not even more than Kakashi. I don't see you helping any of them."

"I...!"

He didn't know what to say, even if he wanted to object.

"I'm going to sleep, Naruto," I said, making it clear that the argument was over.

What had Haku said to him? Probably something about precious people, since that's what it was always summarized in fanfics as. Had Naruto decided that Kakashi was one of his precious people? Oh well, doesn't really matter to me.

I closed my eyes and began to count backwards from ten in tune with my breathing, imagining that each part of my body was slowly getting heavier, sinking into the mattress beneath me, becoming embedded into it...

And I fell into a good rest after a half hour's repetition of it.

I woke up the second a Naruto entered the room, my eyes opening before his hand reached for my shoulder. Sitting up, I nodded at him as we switched to the final guard shift of the night and let him get to sleep.

Once Tazuna woke up and had gotten ready, I'd be off with a few of Naruto's clones.

We'd be arriving to an ambush by Haku, after which point it would become a waiting game to see who reacted first, and how. Optimally, Gatou showed up first with his mercs. Worst case scenario, Kakashi decided to charge in head-long despite his exhaustion.

To that end, I needed to nail my Zabuza impersonation when I wiped out Naruto's clones. Get him absolutely convinced that it was in fact Zabuza out there on the bridge, fully recovered and out for blood.

Exiting the building through a window after a quick sweep, I scooped over onto the roof and sighed.

Just a couple more hours of waiting.

Of course...

It seemed like Kakashi wanted to talk to me, standing by a windowsill.

"Morning."

"Yo..." he greeted me lazily, still using the crutches though his coloration had gotten a lot better.

The silence stretched out into awkwardness, so I turned my eyes away from him and scanned the treeline, even though I didn't think there would be anything there.

Minutes passed and neither of us said a word.

"Zabuza is still alive," Kakashi finally said. And the unexpectedness of the subject took me by surprise so much, that I utterly failed to react to the news for a second.

"Go figure."

"You don't sound surprised," he observed.

"Knew we should have cut off his head. Piddly senbon aren't good for much of anything..." I countered, dryly. "Do you think Mist will let me keep that big paddle of a sword if I kill Zabuza?"

Kakashi blinked, then looked up at the stars. "Maa... The Hidden Mist has been enacting a rather stringent policy of isolationism in recent years... They might well not hear about Zabuza's death for a while."

"But eventually, once they did find out, they'd start coming after it, huh?" I sighed. "Just as well. It looks pretty poorly designed, the initial wow-factor aside."

The jounin made a neutral sound, not quite agreeing or disagreeing with my dismissiveness of the legendary blade. But, well, it was a damn paddle. The blade was way too wide, the holes seemed to serve no purpose, the hilt was round meaning you got no sense of edge alignment and it was too long to be used as a proper sword.

It was more of a nagamaki, or something. And those were a pain in the ass to use.

Then again a lot of the weapons I had seen in the anime had just been plain weird, so I suppose it wasn't that bad.

"You've done a good job keeping everyone focused on the mission and safe, Sasuke. Good job."

"...Huh?" I looked up at Kakashi. Where was this coming from?

"I had been worried that you were too power-hungry and unstable, given how the bell test went... But it's reassuring to see how protective you are of them."

Was he smiling at me?

"Uh..."

What did I say to that? Especially since I had been conspiring with the enemy to incapacitate him and take over command, and had then gone on to negotiate and strike bargains with them behind his back. My every other thought regarding this man had been to badmouth and curse him because of what a pain in the ass he was to deal with, and now he was making nice?

Shit, is he on to me somehow? Show nothing on your face. Nothing.

"Okay...?"

Seeming satisfied with that, either because it was what he simply wanted to say or because it had left me more than a little mystified, he pulled out his familiar orange book. I was more than a little surprised that it had survived the bell test, but I suppose Jiraiya if anyone would make books that could handle a beating.

Suppose I should fuck with him a little back, then.

"So, how long do you think it will take before Zabuza comes for us again?"

"Maa, what makes you think Zabuza will be coming for us again?" he asked, not looking up from the book.

Why was he reading here? It couldn't be comfortable to do so standing up, not with the crutches he needed to remain upright with.

"People like Zabuza—and Gatou, too, I suppose—don't make it where they are by backing down from fights," I observed, before shrugging as I decided to explain my 'reasoning'. "Since no one showed up yet, even with you out of the picture, we can assume Gatou hasn't hired anyone else. But like I said, given how much time and effort he's already sunk into this country, he's not going to be backing down so easily. So, either he's calling in ninja from another village, which will take a couple of days at least, or then he's waiting for Zabuza to clean up his mess."

I looked up at Kakashi, as if asking 'am I wrong?' with my eyes.

The gray-haired jounin closed the book with a snap and looked out at the sea, where in the distance the sun was starting to rise.

"If that masked ninja had been a medic-nin they would have struck again already... So, at least three days more. Incidentally, that's how long I will need as well, so no need to worry quite so much, Sasuke."

I nodded, relaxing my shoulders a little.

"Sounds good."

Bet he'll have an aneurysm when Naruto tells him that Zabuza is back up and at apparently full strength on the bridge with me and Tazuna later today.

"Oh—oh, no...!" Tazuna gasped as the still forms of a dozen workers came to sight.

It had been slightly misty all the way from Tazuna's house, the morning dew as always making for surreal scenes in the country as the horizon between the blues of sea and sky seemed to vanish in white. And if I hadn't been looking for it, the slightest sensation of Haku's Hidden Mist jutsu would have completely escaped my noticed as we stepped onto the bridge.

"Naruto... Check the workers. Two clones only. The rest stay with Tazuna, diamond formation again."

"R-right!" one of the Naruto clones that had been about to rush off said and stumbled back to Tazuna's side.

The 'smart' thing in this situation would have been to pop one Naruto clone and inform the rest of the team back at the house, but I was running with the idea that we still had no idea what was going on and needed all the manpower we had.

"He's still alive!" one of the Naruto shouted, kneeling by a familiar-looking worker.

I noticed the mist growing thicker as seconds passed, subtly but surely.

"Alright, get them back to safety. Line them up by the side over there for now."

"We're not just leaving them!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"They're dead weight and our priority is Tazuna right now. If they're still alive, that means that our enemy wants to slow us down by forcing us to protect them." I explained quietly, feigning anger. "The best shot we have at guaranteeing their lives is to make a vigorous escape, forcing them to chase us and forget about trying to use hostages."

Tazuna exhaled with relief and whether it was because that would involve him getting out of danger directly, or because I was presenting a plan which at least offered the possibility of preserving his workers' and friends' lives, I didn't know or really care.

Zabuza was one thing, and I couldn't remember what happened in canon, but Haku just wasn't going to wholesale massacre a bunch of innocents. He was reliably unreliable like that; it was his cute point, so it was fine.

"I'm going to scout ahead with a clone, keep an eye out Naruto. And keep your voices down—silent killing, remember?"

I made the cross seal for Shadow Clones and suddenly one of the Naruto's shouted in surprise, pointing at me.

"Since when do you know my jutsu?!"

I blinked, the plan utterly forgotten for a moment. "Sharingan, remember? I copied it during the bell test...?"

"Aaah! I thought those were just normal clones! You stole my jutsu, Sasuke!"

Right. I hadn't showed it off in front of him until now. Still, I rolled my eyes, tempted to activate the my Sharingan for good measure. "Copy wheel eye, remember? But forget it, broth brain, stop getting distracted."

He grit his teeth, ensuring that this wouldn't be the last I'd hear about this, but I ignored him and made a single Shadow Clone.

It took off the side of the bridge with Midnight Nameless, silent through the mist, its gliding wings barely disturbing the morning dew and mist with their passing.

"Right. They should be expecting us to head back for dry land... Naruto, can you carry Tazuna over the water if we jump off the side?"

He nodded.

Good, my cover was set. Now just to wait for the clone to rendezvous with Haku and grab the seversword, and we could get this play underway. And now that the two Naruto clones had gotten the workers moved, our time was actually starting to run out.

"Alright, let's—"

"I've seen a lot of stupid brats in my time..." A bone-chilling voice cut through the mist, the bloodlust in the air ramping up so suddenly that it felt as if the temperature had dropped below zero. All the Naruto, Tazuna and several of the somewhat conscious workers all inhaled sharply.

I swallowed and made a show of looking around for the source of the voice. Haku must have been transmitting my clone's speech through the mist right now, but that didn't mean I knew where they were.

"...but if you really want to jump into the water and face me in my element, then go right ahead. It won't change the outcome of today one whit."

Echoing footsteps. The scraping of steel against the bridge's concrete. A low laugh that was echoing all around us. And despite the morning only just having begun and the sun still being on the rise, somehow it seemed like the bridge had been plunged into darkness.

Boy, I was really enjoying pretending to be Zabuza, huh?

And his form, casually walking forward with his massive sword strapped to his back, came into view.

"Not with the Copy-nin still lazing around. But well, we can see about mopping up the rest of the trash later..."

"Kh...!" A Naruto clone was trembling beside me, but gathering his courage he screamed and shot forward with kunai in his hand.

"Naruto!" I shouted, more annoyed than worried.

But well, even if it was a little bit too early for a clone to be popping, it was good to see that Naruto wasn't a coward. Terrified though he was, and only a clone, but he still didn't hesitate to rush forward.

Of course my own clone just slapped aside the kunai with its bare hand and backhanded the Naruto so hard it spun a full three time before it popped.

"Naruto...! How many clones can your clones make?"

The rest of the clones looked at me, hesitating as 'Zabuza' continued his advance.

"I dunno, maybe, like three per clone?"

"Do it! And then transform into Tazuna and spread out into the mist. Keep quiet and buy as much time as you can!" I shouted, stepping forward to meet the apparent missing-nin.

"Sasuke! You can't, you'll die!"

Oh boy, cool it with the melodrama, I'm getting embarrassed even though I'm the one who cooked up this scheme.

"Go!" I shouted and dashed forward, drawing three shuriken and loosing them at myself. "Spread out and try to get Tazuna away!"

"Haku, handle the eye-sore," the swordsman said as he swung his massive blade once, swatting all the shuriken down.

"Yes, Zabuza-san."

Now I just hoped that Haku didn't screw up, as everyone except me and myself, seemed to run off. I stared at the very good likeness of Zabuza, now idly lounging against the Kubikiribōchō quite lazily.

"So, want to try sparring with that thing?"

He shrugged, dropping the mannerisms. "Sure. Might as well keep a background soundtrack for Naruto while he plays around with Haku. It's surprisingly well balanced actually, though I'm not sure if I'd want one."

"Huh. Well, if nothing else, it can be a decent reference for how to beat that one Zabuza-type in the future."

He shrugs, turning his head as the sound of Naruto's surprised cries echo through the mist. "Fingers crossed."

I nod and draw a kunai. "Fingers crossed."

Haku appeared some fifteen minutes later to interrupt my running duel with Zabuza, dropping almost soundlessly between us.

"I have eradicated all but two of the bridge builder decoys. They are currently hiding beneath the bridge, sticking to it in a small opening fifty meters that way."

"He kept you running for a while, huh," I noted with a smirk. There was a faint sheen of sweat on the boy's skin, though his breathing was already under control. "Yeah, Naruto is a real pain in the ass. Just be glad he's limited to somewhat reasonable chakra levels like this. The original would just keep throwing clones at you until you drop from exhaustion."

Even with the mask, I could tell that he didn't quite believe me.

But whatever.

"Did you get something from Gatou?"

"Indeed. There were stores of lamp oil that he was willing to part with, though some of his subordinates expressed doubt in its ability to damage the bridge..." Haku trailed off, eyes going to the side of the bridge. "The rest of your team appear to be making their way here..."

"What? The whole team?" I asked.

Haku nodded.

"Tch, damn. Kakashi and his 'those who abandon their comrades are even worse than trash' ideas, huh? Well, I more or less expected it." Realizing I was being stared at, I looked up. "What?"

"For all your schemes and... such, you certainly hold your comrades in high regard," he stated.

"Is that what it looks like? Because I'd have preferred it if they were a little bit more cowardly right now. But whatever. Hey, you." I point at 'Zabuza'. "Give me a few good slaps with the yaoi paddle."

I raise my arms and my breath hitches as the edge bites into my torso, shearing through my shirt and skin, blood flowing freely down onto my white trousers and the ground. I grit my teeth at the pain, allowing it wash over me and pass.

My clone gives me a couple of cuts more, mostly superficial ones onto my clothes, but one more for my skin as well on my forearm, as if I'd failed a kunai block against the blade.

"Yeesh... now my sandals are all squelchy..." I shake my head, raising my left foot as the blood continues to run down my pants, and then look at the two. "Okay, so they're going to want to save me and Tazuna. But Tazuna and the clone with him don't know they can leave their hiding spot until it's obvious, so I'm going to run away now, as if I've just noticed I'm all alone on the bridge. I'll notice my team outside and meet up with them and then try to figure out a plan to deal with you two and save Tazuna."

Haku nods.

"I'll shout out a name to tell you who you should focus on to stall us as long as possible. Remember, we're buying time until Gatou shows up, nothing more."

Haku nods again and I turn around, hopping onto the railing. I give them a cheery wave and then Flicker off the surface with a lock crack of ruined concrete, the intentionally sloppy exit echoing over the water and surely getting Kakashi's attention beyond the mist.

I appear some fifty meters out on the sea, my feet hitting the water and continuing to slide for another dozen meters as my speed slowly bleeds off. Falling to my knee, I breathe slowly, the drip, drip, drip of my bleeding the only sound I hear.

"Fuck... That hurt."

The Body Flicker obviously aggravated my wound. It still wasn't anything too serious, but it was getting pretty damn painful. Deep breaths, let it the pain flow past you. Keep moving.

I stand up and look around with the Sharingan, spotting the rest of team 7 in the distance. My eyes meet with Kakashi's and he looks relieved to see me.

Still don't feel guilty.

I kick off the water and start sliding my way over there, keeping a wary eye on the mist-covered bridge, as if worried about Zabuza showing up any second. While I'm moving, I subtly check out my team's condition, noting Naruto's antsyness and determination, Sakura's nervous worry and Kakashi's exhaustion.

"Sasuke-kun, you're hurt!" Sakura immediately shouts as I'm in near and I make to cringe, shushing her aggressively, pointing at the mist.

"Naruto, did you get Tazuna out? I couldn't hear you fighting anymore, so..."

He shakes his head, looking at me worriedly too. "But I've still one Shadow Clone with Tazuna, but I'm, uh, not really sure where they are... And I don't think I would leave old man Tazuna alone there."

"With the mist, we can't really tell anyway, even if you dispel the clone." I nod, looking at Kakashi. "Zabuza's still not fully healed, but he pretty much kicked my ass with just taijutsu, though. That masked accomplice of his is even worse—I could barely keep track of Zabuza, but he just seems to vanish into thin air. I tried to get a Shadow Clone out, but he picked it right out of the air."

"Yeah." Naruto immediately agreed. "It was like he was everywhere at the same time against my clones!"

Kakashi exhales slowly, eyeing the bridge still covered in mist.

It's a hard choice; whether to face a pair of strong ninja while wounded and at less than full strength, or to abandon the mission for our safety. Of course, my role here is to waste time and then push for confrontation, so I don't really feel even a fraction of the tension they do.

It's just, if Kakashi pulls back here, I'll need to fake a suicide rush against Gatou with just the oil and no convenient fire-starter...

"Do you know the general area where Tazuna-san should be hiding, Naruto?" Kakashi asks, apparently having judged out determination sufficient to continue without even asking.

"Yeah...!" he nods immediately, looking ready to go immediately, chomping at the bit with being forced to wait even a second longer.

"Sasuke, can you stall Zabuza, at least long enough that Naruto can extract Tazuna?"

I nod immediately, internally grinning that Kakashi isn't feeling recovered enough to join himself and that he's putting this much trust in me.

"Good. Whenever you hear a sharp whistle, break off immediately from Zabuza. Do you understand?"

Hesitating for a second, I nod again anyhow.

Kakashi turns to Sakura, giving her a meaningful look, which she returns after glancing at me and my wound with eyes full of determination. Well, whatever. So long as she's staying out of the way...

"Here, Sasuke. Take this. It's a blood replenishing pill. With how shallow your wound is, you'll be fine so long as you can stand the pain and you don't bleed out. Not immediately at least." I accept the pill, eyeing it for a moment before swallowing it whole. It tastes like dry blood sausages and copper. Kakashi laughs weakly at my expression, before turning to Naruto again. "Once you've got Tazuna out, signal Sasuke and give him all the support you can."

"But... what about all the other workers? We can't just leave them..." the blonde objects weakly.

"Stupid Naruto, this isn't the time—"

"They're still alive," I cut Sakura off. God, handling Naruto is easy, so why does she always go for setting him off in the worst possible way? "They're below Zabuza's notice and so long as they're below ours, they'll remain so too."

The concept seems to stretch Naruto's sense of disbelief; the idea that not saving someone is the best way to save them. But he swallows heavily and nods.

"But once you have Tazuna, I can set off a distraction so you can get them all out. I'll throw a fireball and you get them out, okay? You got that?" I ask.

The workers were still a little too close for comfort, for when Gatou would show up with his mooks. I wanted the bridge cleared so that I could really let loose.

"Yeah," Naruto said, now grinning at me with a buzzing determination, his barely contained chakra pushing against my senses.

Kakashi chuckled, his tension having dropped significantly despite our complete ignoring of him. "Now, both of you, go!"

Offering Naruto a confident smirk, I take off at a run, crossing the water and jumping onto the bridge with kunai akimbo.

"Oooi! Come on and face me you shriveled up prune! I bet even Naruto could—"

And then I have to jump aside as the massive seversword crashes down, gouging a massive part of the bridge in that single swing, bloodlust welling up within the mist as the hollow laughter of the Demon of the Mist echoes. Huh, either I got bored while waiting or then Haku taught me the voice trick, because he's totally now using the entire mist as a loudspeaker.

Behind me and to the left, I could hear an absolute torrent of Narutos charging, all roaring at the tops of their lungs.

"I guess that's one way to counter silent killing..."

My clashes with my disguised clone are half-assed, mostly just us falling back into the familiar pattern we'd established already and filling the mist with the sounds of our clashing. I use the time to consider the playing field.

Alright, Tazuna is still hidden under the bridge. Naruto is distracting and swamping the bridge with himself. Kakashi and Sakura are... acting as a reserve, I guess? I still didn't have much faith in her, but right now that was reassuring, since if Kakashi had to keep an eye on her, that was less of him to go around for the rest of us. Maybe long-range support, will have to see what he comes up with. So I have Haku stalling Naruto, knowing where Tazuna is and keeping him locked down.

Even against Naruto's obscene reserves, as long as Haku didn't start whipping out big moves, I was confident that he could keep Naruto checked for a long while. The problem was that the longer this went on the greater the chances of Naruto pulling an upset were. Not just by way of resourcefulness and determination, but also by way of sheer Kyuubi-empowered overwhelming force.

Guess I'll have to set up one for Haku, then.

I heard the echo of a real Naruto's cry of pain through the mist for once, rather than the poof of a clone.

And then suddenly a sharp, shrill whistle pierced the air. I almost forgot what it meant, but Zabuza's curious look got me back in the game real quick. "Jump back."

We both did, separating a good twenty meters. And a second later a pair of kunai came whistling through the air in front of me. I blinked, processing it. Had Zabuza been chasing me, they might have hit him, though that was unlikely. Popping blind-shots from that far away came down to little more than luck.

But it did pose an external threat to Zabuza, something that would fray at his concentration and cut at his corners.

"Guess Kakashi's copying my tricks now..." the clone grumbled quietly, hefting the massive blade over his shoulders and I had to shrug.

"Whatever. Naruto is that way and it sounds like he's fighting Haku head on. Give me a lift, will ya?"

Zabuza grinned, teeth almost poking through his bandaged face as he obliged, rushing forward like a hurricane and swinging the Kubikiribōchō at me with the flat. I jumped and bounced off of it, like a tennis ball against a swinging racket.

Flipping once through the air, I curl up and hit the concrete in a breakfall roll, managing to only bruise myself a little with the fall.

"Sasuke!"

Naruto blinks owlishly at me as I get to my feet gingerly, gritting teeth against the waves of pain from my wound. Drip, drip, drip.

I look up and spot Haku, who also paused the fighting at my apparent arrival, pregnantly waiting for whatever nonsense I'm about to cook up. Meanwhile Zabuza is still keeping his distance; I really am on the same page with my clones.

"Wait... You're the herb girl. What are you doing here...?" I ask, my carefully faked confusion and apprehension immediately noticed by Naruto.

The blond looks between us, now confused too. Haku, understanding my signal of minute nudges, grunts quietly with annoyance and takes off his mask. Still doesn't like me at all, does he?

"Ah! You're the really pretty boy who was picking herbs!" Naruto shouts, pointing as he stands up, all hostility bleeding out of him. "W-why are you here?"

I smirk. Aaand Flashback jutsu set-up, success.

The anime was top-class at wasting people's time with flashbacks, so why not weaponize it? Plus it'd be pulling double-duty by resetting Naruto's aggro. Don't want him to go all Kyuubi on me, now would I?

Haku, warring between being annoyed at my machinations and his obvious like and respect for Naruto, hesitates.

"Haku," 'Zabuza' intones as he walks out of the mist. "Have you gotten rid of the old man, yet?"

Oh, I'm getting down Zabuza's blend of annoyance, murder and confidence pretty well by now, seeing Naruto's tensing at his words.

"I... apologize, Zabuza-san. Not yet."

The older boy, now unmasked, is clearly wondering what the hell I'm planning, eyeing between Zabuza and me, offering only his peripheral awareness for Naruto.

My disguised Shadow Clone makes a disgusted sound, crossing his arms. "Fine. Handle the brats, I'll go get the head."

And that's my cue to leave the tragic orphans to it.

"Like I'd let you!"

I rush forward, getting blocked by the seversword and then being forced to dodge low to survive the retaliation, assuming my already familiar dance with the clone once more. Leaving the unmasked Haku with Naruto, whose voice I can barely hear over the rushing wind and clashing steel.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you even following a rotten guy like that?"

We make our way from the two, hearing another sharp whistle again some thirty meters later and peel our senses for the kunai, noting at the same time that Kakashi and Sakura must have moved up the shore to another spot.

"Hmm... Guess we can give Naruto like five minutes?" my clone asks.

"Should be enough. Then I'll throw a Great Fireball. Where's the oil canisters and how much we got?"

It would serve the dual purpose of reminding everyone that I had fire jutsu, making the eventual firestorm I was planning to unleash seem more plausible, and then it would hopefully remind Naruto about the still-unconcsious workers so that he could move them to safety.

By now I think that soon Gatou, if he was coming, would be arriving.

If not, then ending the operation here and re-working it on Zabuza's and Haku's end would have to be our next move. Knowing when the pull out was vital.

"Should be right over there." He pointed. "Twenty liters in five canisters."

That wasn't a whole lot, all things considered. Definitely not enough to burn down a bridge. But if I threw the canisters into the air and allowed it to spread and aerosolize somewhat, it would probably fuel the Great Fireball enough to at least look scary.

Maybe I could count on that explosion effect again I had seen with the dust?

But in the end, it would fall on me to make a fire big enough to cover Zabuza's non-death.

So, how do I unshackle the fire jutsu...?

My experience with the jutsu so far, was that it had very defined parameters that you could somewhat manipulate with your breath. A lot of the breathing exercises and pipe-smoking books that the Third Hokage had recommended me had been cool and useful, but none had been the kind of stuff that would allow me to transform a ranged fireball into a concentrated conflagration.

"We should probably keep fighting. Keep up appearances, and all," Zabuza said, hefting the sword again.

I grunted, already getting tired and sticky and crusty from the sweat and blood. "Got any water on you? Could probably hydrate about now."

"Sorry, no water jutsu for you," he replied, shaking his head.

We got back into the familiar dance, me ducking, duking and dodging the massive sword, lashing out with the kunai in between swings and checking his kicks where I could, often just moving around and keeping him in motion to buy time.

Without the Sharingan, I wouldn't really ever try to approach someone like Zabuza, the difference in physical abilities so vast that I'd just get crushed in the first clash. Even my clone, which was just copying that fighting style, wouldn't have come close to being anything other than an inconvenience to the real thing. Which was why I was still damn pleased that Kakashi was keeping his distance. Even with the excuse of Zabuza still being wounded, I wasn't sure if the veteran jounin would buy the act if he got to see it up close.

My continued surviving against Zabuza was a questionable thing, but it was still within the realm of possibility since I had the matured Sharingan, evening out the odds. And unlike Kakashi, I didn't have stamina issues with it.

Of course, I wasn't using it now. There was no reason to waste the chakra, just for Naruto's discerning eyes. Not with the Shadow Clone halving my energy and what I still needed for the Great Fireball.

Another sharp whistle, though this time it sounded a little bit off.

I jumped back and immediately felt alarm at the sight of the paper tag trailing on a string from one of the kunai, worried for a second that they had thrown an explosive tag at me for some reason, but a second later I note it's just a regular tag with some writing on it.

'Gatou incoming. 200 Mercenaries. Relocating beneath bridge. Retreat ASAP.'

I grin.

"Looks like it's showtime."

I bring my hands together for the serpent seal—hands clasped together, as if in prayer, moving from there to the next seal, ram, with great care. No matter how much I trained my handseals, certain transitions never felt natural, serpent to ram in particular, like in the Great Fireball jutsu.

It was by no means my favorite jutsu, but it was technically speaking my most advanced and potent ninjutsu. Shadow Clones probably ranked higher, but that had no elemental chakra so I wasn't sure exactly how to compare them in difficulty. And as I had practiced it, I had come to value more efficient jutsu over it. For the same cost that I could throw a single fireball, I could fly for hours or perform dozens of Body Flickers, without even getting into Chakra String techniques...

Monkey—boar.

Still, I had diligently trained in its use, because it was still a goddamn fireball. But had I given it the same level of attention as I had the Transformation or the Flicker?

Not really.

Having raced through the handseals all the way to the penultimate handseal—horse, I pushed my chakra into my lungs, straining against the 'container' of the jutsu with my chakra. Container, because the limit to how powerful the jutsu came out was not due to my lung capacity or how much chakra I had overall, but the framework of the jutsu itself. Even now, I couldn't replicate the Third Hokage's level of mastery in this one jutsu. No matter how much power I tried to pump into the fire, be it size or intensity, once it reached its capacity it was like trying to blow air into an empty bottle.

It just wouldn't budge.

At best I had been able to improve on the chakra-to-air ratio in the fireball, spreading it out effectively, but even that was a far cry from the Hokage's example.

I inhale and adopt the tiger seal—and it struck from blue; the realization of what the tiger seal at the end really did in the Great Fireball jutsu. It took the jutsu formed by the previous seals and charged by the horse's fire nature, and then gave it shape, mixing it with the air in your lungs somewhat similarly to how the Body Flicker used the tiger seal to form the chakra bubble.

Maybe...

The bolide blasted forth from my mouth, searing the concrete surface, flash-vaporizing much of the water pooling there and making the mist hiss around us, forming a mighty updraft that immediately improved visibility. A second later I could hear Naruto spotting the signal and immediately leaping to action, going for the unconscious workers with a great cry of "Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

But my thoughts were stuck on the fireball.

I knew how to do jutsu using the ram and tiger handseal seallessly already, didn't I?

So couldn't I, in theory at least, skip those seals altogether in a string of handseals and perform them myself, manually, as it were? I had long ago, when I had first started learning ninjutsu, observed that a ram seal wasn't the same ram real if it was done after another handseal. But there were similarities. Like, it was the same action, just done somehow differently. In a different context, somehow.

If I need to modify, unshackle or jailbreak the fireball somehow, then I should probably focus on the parts that I knew best. Which would be the ram seal, and by relative extension, the tiger handseal, since they kinda-sorta did the same thing. Which as luck would have it, were both a part of the seal string. Couldn't I just manually perform the chakra formation and skip those two handseals, using that as a means of expanding just how much chakra I can pump into the jutsu?

So long as I did the ram somewhat right, the monkey that followed should be comparable to how the chakra formed normally in the Great Fireball jutsu, wouldn't it?

I clasped my hands together again in the serpent seal, molding chakra and then deliberately skipping ram and going to monkey—it was completely different from the fire release jutsu that I knew, so I let the chakra go. I knew this much already, so how about if I manually molded it in the ram's general shape?

Serpent, no-hands-ram, monkey...

Nope, that's not right, either... I shook my head. I wasn't as familiar with the ram seal as I thought I was, just because I had mastered the basic three Academy jutsu.

"What's this? Got some idea?" 'Zabuza' asked, but I ignored him.

Okay, but if it's the first couple of seals forming the jutsu, horse creating the fire-natured chakra and then tiger at the end pushing it out in its final form, I should be able to skip the final tiger, just free-forming it.

It was worth a try.

Serpent, ram, monkey, boar, horse aaand hold... no-hands-tiger. I exhaled again, feeling that the jutsu was almost right, which I figured with how little chakra I had pushed into it, should be alright. And as I exhaled, hand still in the horse seal charging fire-natured chakra and at the same time manually forming the fire I was exhaling, as if I was using the tiger seal, a constant stream of fire burned from my mouth.

"Whoa... What was that?" my clone asked, obviously surprised.

I coughed, throat suddenly dry.

"That, was the first step to getting rid of the seals in the Great Fireball jutsu." I smirked. "And in blowing this bridge sky-high without a metric ton of sawdust."

And just in time; perhaps it had been the fireball clearing away the mist which had attracted him, but suddenly a loud voice cut through the air, coming from the Wave-side.

"What's this, Zabuza? You still haven't killed them? What am I even paying you for, you baby devil?"

Gatou and his mercenaries had arrived.