17 Rebirth of the Uchiha Chapter 17

Zabuza cocked his head to the side, Kubikirihouchou resting on his shoulder. "Well, this is interesting. I wondered who Konoha would send to retrieve the Sarutobi and his brats," he commented, gesturing to the shaking members of Team Ten. "But you, I don't know. Why is someone who never even made it into the Bingo Book coming after me?"

Iruka stared him down, moving slowly forwards. "Momochi Zabuza. Demon of Kirigakure. Slaughtered an entire graduating class in order to become a genin. I don't suppose you'd be willing to talk this out peacefully?"

The swordsman blinked. "I... don't think I've ever heard that before. I mean, obviously I'm still going to kill the old man, but nice try on your part," he replied, picking up a struggling Tazuna with his free hand. "Sorry about this, old man. Nothing personal." Whatever Zabuza had expected, the bridge builder smirking was not one of them.

"Thanks for not hitting me too hard, you bastard! That would have ruined everything." he cackled, a hissing noise coming from a sheet of paper in his pocket. The swordsman threw the man as hard as he could over the railing, the explosion coming a split-second later. Zabuza turned back just in time to block the flying kick Iruka had launched, skidding backwards across the wet surface of the bridge.

"What the fuck was that?" he snarled, seeing the genin in their combat stances some distance away. Iruka allowed himself a quick grin as he closed the gap, trying to prevent the Kiri-nin from using his oversized weapon effectively.

"Kage bunshin replacements for all the workers. Tazuna hasn't been here in days." Zabuza managed to backhand the Konoha jounin away, keeping him at bay with a flurry of sword swipes, barely catching the edge of the man's flak jacket, but succeeding in opening up a space between them.

"You called up that many Kage bunshin?" the nuke-nin asked, making the unique hand sign for the Kirigakure no Jutsu. "How the hell are you still standing?" Iruka closed his eyes, focusing on his echolocation technique. Keeping careful track of his opponent's movements behind him, Iruka elected to wait before answering. 'Now should be good.'

"Honestly, that wasn't me. I don't even know the jutsu," he admitted, 'seeing' the other man tighten his grip on the giant cleaver. "That would be the work of one of my students." he smiled, hearing a muffled thud as the master assassin lost his footing. Iruka simply pulled out a kunai and lunged, only to be forced back by a wide swipe.

"Nice try, but no genin could pull off something like that." Zabuza grunted, trying to regain his composure. A sudden fireball left him jumping backwards on instinct, as the pinkette and the... Uchiha, damn, decided to join the battle, the girl using some technique to draw the mist into a sphere in her hand, throwing it with surprising force at the mist-nin.

"Haku, get out here and deal with the pests! The jounin is mine to deal with!" he called, the hunter-nin fading into existence, senbon flying towards Team Ten, who vanished in puffs of smoke.

"Wait, how long were they clones?" Sasuke asked, bewildered, as he and Sakura blocked a few test shots with their kunai. The pinkette kept her eyes on the enemy as she replied, sounding equally confused.

"I have no idea. I hope they know what they're doing."

SCENE BREAK

Shikamaru inhaled sharply as Chouji stepped on a branch with a clearly audible snap. "Alright guys, keep it down. Naruto promised to buy us some time to get this done. If we can capture Gatou, we can put an end to things right here and now." he whispered, his teammates nodding hesitantly in agreement. Ino made a hand seal, focusing intently on the area nearby. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she extended her perceptions outwards.

"Okay, there are a lot of people moving around underground. From the looks of it, none of them are shinobi, but I can't get anything more than that." she gasped after a minute, massaging her temples. Extending her soul to possess someone was one thing, but without a host to link with, the Yamanaka techniques were the perfect recipe for one hell of a headache.

Shikamaru closed his eyes, making a circle with his hands. He'd done something reckless, completely ignoring everything he'd been taught about strategy. Then, Naruto was the last person you'd call 'tactical' and he'd already faced down at least three nuke-nin before this fustercluck of a mission. Wait, fustercluck? Dear Log, he needed to start napping again. He was getting sleep-deprived.

"Okay, we do this as quietly as we can. Ino, you head in first, use your techniques to disarm anyone we run into. I'll follow along and hold them off with the Kagemane, and Chouji be our main line of defense. Ino-Shika-Cho standard tactics." he concluded. 'If we had a wider range of abilities to work with, we'd be golden. I just hope I'm not leading you guys into a trap...'

SCENE BREAK

Naruto sighed, staring out the window as he gave Asuma the chance to dress himself for the first time since his collapse. It seemed like the right thing to do, to give the man some privacy. Maybe Hinata-chan's tips on etiquette and stuff were actually sinking in.

A crash from downstairs, along with a jolt in the back of his mind, alerted the Uzumaki to the appearance of intruders. Cursing, he called up a trio to replace the clone who got dispelled. 'Well, fuck, that's what we get for lightening up the defences here. Watch out, assholes, Uzumaki Naruto's'a fuck your shit up!'

Inari stood in the kitchen, clutching a knife in his shaking hands. "Y-you..." he stammered, staring up at the sneering mercenaries holding his mother hostage, the words from the Konoha shinobi echoing in his head.

"It's a pain trying to fight someone like Gatou, but it's even more annoying if someone like that just gets to do whatever they want." "He had to learn very young that no-one was going to solve all his problems for him... He made a promise to himself, a long time ago, that he wouldn't let bad experiences ruin his life." "Newsflash, life is hard! If you don't work your ass off, you won't get anywhere!" Gritting his teeth, he charged forwards, thinking of how Kaiza had rescued him from the sea.

"Don't you dare hurt my mom!" he screamed, the edge of his blade biting the man's leg before he backhanded the child, Tsunami crying out in fear. The 'samurai' pulled out his sword, addressing Inari directly.

"Alright, you little shit! I was gonna be nice and leave you alone, but now? Now I'm gonna take you as my hostage instead, so I don't really need your mom, now do I-" he found himself cut off by a puff of smoke, which faded to reveal a stern-looking Naruto, arms folded.

"You shouldn't have done that, prick. Now I'm gonna have to break you." he stated, as calmly as if he were discussing the weather. The man threw his head back to laugh, before a hand grabbed it, slamming his face into the ground. He was unconscious almost instantly.

Naruto, in the meantime, had turned to face Inari. "Kid, what you just did was incredibly stupid and reckless." he said, as Inari stared resolutely at the ground. He blinked in surprise when the genin ruffled his hair, laughing. "Man, I was wrong about you. You risked your life to save your mom. That makes you pretty damn brave in my book."

Inari stared up in surprise as a pale but steady Asuma made his way carefully downstairs. "Naruto, we have to get out of here. If they're determined to take hostages, then more of those thugs will be here soon." he said, clutching one of his trench knives. The Uzumaki nodded his agreement, turning to Tsunami and Inari.

"Tsunami-san, you and Inari better get going. I'll leave you a clone squadron to keep guard. You too, Asuma-sensei," he insisted calmly, waiting for the (he assumed) inevitable protests.

"You're probably right, Naruto. As I am, I'd just get in Iruka's way. Besides, you're the only one that knows where my team have wandered off to. I'll keep watch over these two while you head to the bridge," the Sarutobi half-smiled, seeing the look of surprise on the blond's face. "No need to be so shocked. Just because I outrank you doesn't mean your ideas are automatically worse. In a situation as messed up as this one, rank doesn't really matter all that much."

Naruto shook his head to clear his thoughts, calling up some support with his specialty technique. "Okay, Asuma-sensei. Inari, you take care of him and your mom for me, right?" he smiled, as the boy nodded gravely, evidently taking his words as an order. "I'm off to kick Zabuza's ass!" whooped the genin, leaping off the windowsill to take off at a sprint.

SCENE BREAK

Shikamaru groaned as Chouji managed to knock out the last of Gatou's bodyguards. He'd never had to hold multiple targets in his Kagemane for that long before. When he got back to Konoha, he was going to have to bug his father for some more training. That was going to be all kinds of not fun. Still, back to business.

"Gatou. I think we should have a little talk about your business plans." he said, stretching out the stiffness in his neck. Even he had to grin at the terrified look on the corrupt businessman's face. Ino lacked the same level of restraint, grinning like a madwoman as she stepped forwards.

"Now don't worry, Gatou-san," she almost purred, eager to make the man even more uncomfortable. "We'll get everything we need nice and quick and be on our merry way."

SCENE BREAK

Iruka weaved and ducked, diverting the sword strikes as best he could with his kunai. Zabuza, for his part, seemed to be growing more and more frustrated by the scarred jounin's insistence on defense. "What do you think you're doing? You haven't even tried to go on the offensive since your genin joined the fight." he grunted, kicking Iruka in the side as their blades clashed overhead. Iruka barrel rolled out of range of the sword's tip as it was thrust towards him.

"Funny thing, even though we're supposed to be spies and assassins, most shinobi have specialties that are best suited for straight up combat. Even you're as famous for your Suiton ninjutsu and swordplay as you are for assassinations," Iruka observed, moving further towards the unfinished end of the bridge. "If that kind of raw power was all that mattered, the shinobi world would be a pretty different place. You need to control your power, use it tactically, or anyone can take you out before you get the chance to use any of it."

"Does this have a point, or are you trying to bore me to death?" the swordsman grunted, smashing through a stack of timbers as the teacher frowned.

"It's quite rude to interrupt, Zabuza-san," Iruka noted disapprovingly, ignoring the feral growls emanating from the Demon of Kiri. "My point is, on paper, I don't stand a chance of beating you. But in reality, I don't have to beat you." Zabuza blinked as something moved in his peripheral vision. Iruka continued the impromptu lesson.

"If I can't win a fair fight, all I need to do is cheat," he smiled pleasantly, as he made a ram seal. "Goodbye, Zabuza-san." he said, dropping backwards towards the sea as the end of the bridge was engulfed in an explosion, flames visible as far back as the village.

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke backflipped away from a barrage of senbon, Sakura pulling in to guard his back. "What do we do, Sasuke-kun? If he's this fast, we won't be able to even land a hit." she hissed under her breath, trying to keep their enemy from hearing. Sasuke's eyes darted back and forth, barely able to follow the hunter-nin's movements, even with the aid of the sharingan.

"I say we try to catch him off-guard. There's a pattern to what he's doing- duck!" the Uchiha prompted, sending the senbon off-course with a low-powered burst of fire. "When I give you the signal, try to grab him. If you can slow him down, I think I can take him out of the fight. Ready?" he enquired, as they began circling around, still back-to-back.

"Hai, Sasuke-kun," the girl agreed, throwing a handful of shuriken, which were almost lazily deflected, the last of them being plucked from the air, bladed edges be damned. Sakura's eye twitched in irritation. 'This guy's just showing off at this point...'

"I do not wish to harm you," their opponent stated coolly, voice barely rising above a whisper. "If you are willing to surrender, Zabuza-sama and I will complete our mission and leave you in peace." he continued, dodging the pair's strikes with ease. A sudden explosion from the other end of the bridge caught the attention of all three.

Sakura growled in anger, receiving a quick nod as she glanced towards Sasuke, throwing a punch with as much force as she could muster in response. "Like hell we'll believe that after what you two did to Asuma-sensei! No way you're getting your hands on Tazuna!" However, the young man seemed to flow around her blow, grabbing her wrist in a cold hand.

"If you will not surrender, then I will have to close my heart and-" Haku began, before an enraged Sasuke burst forwards, his entire arm sparking.

"Get your hand off her! Raihadou!" he cried, managing to score his first proper blow of the fight, sending the nuke-nin skidding across the wet concrete. "I swore, on my family's memory," he snarled, not even noticing that a third tomoe had sprouted in each eye. "I will not let anyone I care about die. So if you're going to hurt my team..."

"You're going to have to go through me."