22 22. You aren’t Haku

After killing Haku, Naruto used a quick water jutsu to cleanse himself of Haku's blood.

After the quick cleansing Naruto looked at Haku's corpse and memorised his appearance. He also hid Haku's corpse inside a scroll and cleared the blood around the surroundings.

"Transformation Jutsu".

*Poof*

Looking at himself, Naruto felt that he looked quite identical to the real Haku, "Zabuza shouldn't be able to tell that there's something wrong with me".

He then picked up the white mask as he put it on his face, dashing into the distance he made his way towards the fight. As he inched closer he could feel two chakra signals fighting intensely.

Although one chakra signal was weaker than the other, arriving at the battlefield naruto stood behind a tree as he watched Zabuza continuously inflicted with injuries.

"Kakashi Hatake, you're very strong but it's still not enough to kill me".

"Hmph, we'll see keep running around Zabuza".

Kakashi had his sharigan fully focused on Zabuza as he copied his hand signs, they both then sent water dragons crashing into each other, Zabuza took advantage of that as he thrusted with his heavy Execution Blade.

Kakashi already foreseeing that moved out of its way, "Water Style: Great Vortex Jutsu!".

"No way!"

Zabuza found himself trapped inside a water vortex that sent him crashing through the forest, holding on to his breathe as he was suffocated by the water pressure.

'I can't keep up with his jutsu!'.

*Swish* *swish* swish*

Three kunai's plunged into his shoulder, arm and stomach, "ughhh" the pain hit him all at once as Zabuza struggled to stand.

Naruto quickly through a needle that hit him in the back of his head putting Zabuza into a coma, he then appeared beside him as he said to Kakashi.

"Sorry, but I'll be taking him".

"Who are you, wait you must be a sensor Ninja from the Mist" Kakashi said looking at the two lines engraved on Naruto's white mask.

Naruto didn't reply as he picked up Zabuza and slightly bowed towards Kakashi getting ready to disappear, "you won't be leaving yet!".

Kakashi started weaving hand signals as he prepared a water style jutsu.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!", Naruto accumulated a lot of chakra behind this technique, he already knew getting away from Kakashi would be pretty difficult.

So he sent a powerfully charged jutsu that sent Kakashi flying across the forest, "that should give me enough time to escape from him without revealing any flaws".

With a sudden burst, Naruto disappeared, he used his maximum speed that he could muster up with his weights on, looking back he felt a chakra signal starting to speed in his direction.

"Looks like Kakashi isn't willing to let me go that easily", their cat and mouse chase continued for about an hour before Kakashi stopped.

'Finally, he is rather persistent', Naruto then found a small open field and place Zabuza there, he crouched down an pulled out the two senbon needles as he jolted Zabuza awake.

Waking up groggily and in pain, Zabuza's hazy eyes focused onto Naruto's mask.

"Haku?".

"It's me Zabuza-san".

"Looks like a got a number done on me, that Copy Ninja is ridiculously strong!".

"Yes he chased me for quite awhile and I barely got away".

Zabuza then looked at Haku as he leaned against a tree, "we will still do this mission".

"I know you don't want to, but I have to do this mission".

"I'll always follow you Zabuza-san", they both then sat in silence.

"You're not Haku".

"Huh? What do you mean Zabuza-san?" Naruto asked in a amused voice.

"You're not Haku, even if you look like him I know you aren't him".

"…..".

"What gave it away?" Naruto said as he took off the mask, his light smile deepened.

Seeing that smile Zabuza's eyes widened slightly, "I've seen that smile before, are you that Blonde haired kid?".

Naruto just smiled at Zabuza not giving him an answer, slowly getting up he started walking away.

"You should be able to treat your wounds since they aren't that serious, I'll get going now, I hope we meet again".

"….What happened to Haku".

Looking back Naruto flashed a smile as he said "I killed him", Zabuza's body started shaking as he felt anger clouding his thoughts.

"If you want avenge him, you can always find me, but I'm sure you won't find a reason to". With that Naruto disappeared.

Travelling across the forest Naruto undid his transformation, "I need to head back before Kakashi finds something wrong".

He opened three gates as he vanished, only a blur being left behind, soon he arrived at the place Haku sent him towards. There he could see Sakura and Sasuke looking for him, he quickly bandaged up his injuries and walked out to meet them.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted as she spotted him walking towards them, "where were you, we were looking for you!".

"I was healing my injuries, did Kakashi-sensei arrive?".

"Yeah, we also explained to him what happened with that masked Ninja".

After hearing what Sakura had to say Naruto explained that he hid inside a small cave he found, he further narrated how Haku had chased him around the forest whilst he was injured, luckily he found a place where he was able to escape Haku's pursuit.

"Is Kakashi-sensei waiting for us?".

"Yeah, we told him we knew where you were so he sent us looking for you whilst he protected Mr.Tazuna".

"Ok let's go, let's not keep Kakashi-sensei waiting".

They all then walked towards where Kakashi was, arriving they saw Kakashi leaning against a tree.

"Hello kids, Naruto are you ok?".

"Yes Kakashi-sensei, although I feel slight pain whenever I move".

"When we get back to the village you'll get proper help".

"Mhmm" Naruto nodded his head, Kakashi then stopped leaning on the tree as he turned to Tazuna, "mr.Tazuna as you can see this mission is one dangerous mission so I hope you stick by us".

"Yes yes I will!" Tazuna said with a nervous tone.

"Ok then, let's continue to our destination, mr.Tazuna lead the way". Tazuna then walked ahead of them as Sakura tried to converse with sasuke with sasuke visibly annoyed.

Naruto strolled along as he thought of what Zabuza would do now.

As team 7 and Tazuna walked Kakashi gaurded their backs, he took out a book fully invested in it, although it seemed like Kakashi was captured by the book, he was actually looking at Naruto from the top of the book.

"Hmm".