Chapter 93

Like a tight spring snapping free, Naruto slams his unwavering fist directly into Haku's mask with an impossibly heavy 'thrack!' The Hunter-nin is launched a great distance away, hitting the ground with a hard thud before rolling farther. If Naruto didn't have legitimate reasons behind this fight, it would've hurt him even more to do that to someone he cares about, and that horrible anguish rises violently from his taut stomach.

"AAAAAHHHHHH," Naruto screams to the heavens, wrecked with raw emotions. "ZABUZA!" With less fog and fewer clones, Naruto vaguely sees Kakashi and Zabuza still facing off, though both are paying more attention to him and Haku. "I'm coming for your weapon!" Unbeknownst, to Naruto and Sasuke, a water clone of Zabuza materializes threateningly behind Sasuke before the Demon of Hidden Mist tells Kakashi, "don't even think of interfering, Kakashi. Or my clone kills your little pet."

Zabuza immediately breaks away from Kakashi at break-neck speed, shouting at the blond ninja, "you want it, brat? You got it!" Zabuza was truly a monster and he was on Naruto in seconds, bringing down his enormous sword with great stone cutting speed. A kunai in each hand and chakra constantly flowing from each foot, all Naruto could manage was evading or blocking, getting cut no matter what. Even if Naruto blocks a direct assault, the concussive force alone is enough to rattle his skull, deafen his ears, and send him flying—chakra suction or not—all the while Zabuza laughs.

"You need to do better than that if you want to beat the Demon of Hidden Mist," Zabuza yells as he toys with Naruto, confidently digging in little cuts every so often, not only feeding his blade, but his own blood-lust.

Naruto uses everything, every technique he knows, every clone available, every tool in his pouch and nothing could stop Zabuza from having his way—kicking Naruto harder than he's ever felt, punching him with the force of a sledgehammer, cutting into aching muscle with his sword—drawing more and more blood from the red-stained blond.

"Congratulations, brat!" Zabuza yells, as he parries Naruto's kunai strike with his leg before kicking him in the face. "I officially recognize you as a shinobi," Zabuza adds before finishing his combo with a kick to the stomach, sanding Naruto far enough for Zabuza to jump in the air and prepare a downward cut. "Now you can die like one!"

Gleefully, Zabuza brings down a lethal cut, strong enough to howl in the severed wind as the assassin attempts to cleave Naruto in two. Naruto barely manages to bring up both kunai, creating a V to catch the razor-edge of the legendary blade. But even still, with the force of his technique, Naruto instantly drops to one knee, slamming chakra-infused bone and cartilage into cracking concrete as inches of the blade digs into his trapezius muscle, sprouting blood up the side of his jumpsuit's collar and his face.

"Naruto!" the blond ninja hears Sakura call, but his blurry attention can only focus on the madness of Zabuza's cold face.

'Oi! You dumb Fox,' Naruto's mind calls as all strength in him fluctuates and sputters as much as his free-flowing blood. 'Get off your ass, I could use a little help here!'

A large red eye pulses within him and like a second heart, bigger than his head, pumps more disgusting power into Naruto's small body than he's ever felt in training. Everyone begrudgingly witnessing the fight is suddenly stunned to see red chakra surround his body and steam the air around. Not a second later, his wounds begin to heal faster than is medically possible and Naruto is left with more power than he knows what to do with…

… but Naruto knows exactly what to do with this absurd strength.

The animalistic blond heaves the great sword up with super strength from is already healing trapezius wound, and rolls forward towards the mercenary, sniping both the assassin's set feet with his kunai. Zabuza growls in the pain at the kunai embed through his feet and into the stone below as Naruto's left hand grips the assassin's right wrist. While a clone lands next to Naruto, Zabuza tries to pull away but the blond's insane chakra-covered grip is unyielding, until he resorts to striking Naruto in the face to let go—a hit that would've normally knocked him out is ignored and healed in seconds—all the while Naruto and his clone are shaping a glowing ball of chakra in his right hand.

"You think you know what it means to truly be strong," a bloody Naruto bellows passionately at the assassin, though all on the bridge clearly hear. "I'll show you how the greatest Hokage there'll ever be protects his friends!" Growling fiercely, Naruto focuses on condensing the great ball of rotating power until it's perfect. Leaning in, the blond, bloody and beaten ninja slams the destructive ball of chakra straight into Zabuza's gut, roaring for all to hear, "Rasengan!"

No matter the perspective of the explosive attack; from Kakashi's, Sakura's, Sasuke's, Haku's, none could accept a small bloodied blond genin smashing a condensed tornado of chakra into a former Kiri-Anbu's gut and rocket the seasoned shinobi thirty yards away, spinning the taller mass like a propeller all the while. The hard, bone-breaking landing looked like mercy as it seemed like Zabuza would go on forever.

In the infinite quiet of the bridge, a heaving Naruto sends two clones to get him as he slowly walks over to a stunned and held down Haku whose mask is in pieces on the floor. The clones keeping Haku from interfering dispel and upon realizing he kept Haku back while he beat the beautiful boy's special person, Naruto grows very nervous. He can't imagine Haku would be happy about that and immediately apologizes, "ah, Haku, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to beat your special person! But I had to prove to him that friends aren't tools. You- He-… I mean, if there was another way-"

"…Did you know," Haku slowly asks.

Confused, Naruto asks, "know what?"

"That the person you met in the forest and the Hunter-nin by Zabuza's side were one and the same?"

"Oh," Naruto follows, responding, "yeah."

"You…" Haku is taken into silence until his clones bring Zabuza's weakened body. Kakashi and Sasuke close in as the Demon Ninja coughs and sputters blood through his sharpened teeth, prompting Naruto to happily bellow, "oh thank Kami you're alive!"

The extensively wounded former Kiri-Anbu managed to painfully communicate, "… I… under… estimated… you."

Anxious about Haku, Naruto ignores the statement to ask, "Ne, Zabuza-jiji, instead of your sword, can Haku come with me to Konoha?" Though everyone is surprised, Naruto ignores them to add, "I promise I'll protect him with everything I got," while heavily smashing his fist in his palm.

"No," Haku gasps, wincing in pain. "Do not ask this Naruto-kun! I won't leave Zabuza-sama!"

"Why not?" Naruto counters, looking from Zabuza to Haku. "Zabuza-jiji isn't the only one who cares about you."

"I'm his tool," Haku calls back. "I'm meant for nothing more than to kill anything he desires!"

"That's not true," Naruto calls back. "I heard you! During our fight, I could tell every punch you landed, every kick you tagged me with, you didn't want to kill me. You didn't even want to hurt me!" Haku is stunned to hear the admission but Naruto turns to the sprawled Zabuza and states with a pointed finger. "I bet you even he knows friends aren't tools. Shinobi aren't murdering machines. We build! And we protect! That's my Nindō!"

Haku tries to argue, "well you're wrong!" But, like his fists striking his blond friend, the beautiful boy doesn't feel complete conviction.

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