Clash of Blades

Unknown Location-Outside Onibus Town

Outside of Onibus Town, hidden deep within the vegetation, there lay a single building. The building was made out of limestone and brick and so it looked a bit run down due to the weathering effects. The front of the piece of infrastructure had a door made of what seemed to be oak or mahogany due to its expensive look. Its roof was red and extremely slanted to allow snow and rain to easily slip down the surface so that it wouldn't pile up on it.

A swirl of wind and mist appeared in front of the house and the mixture of water and wind parted to reveal the swordsman, Naruto and Kurama.

"Right, here we are!" The man grinned beneath his bandages as he stared at the small house.

"This place looks like a dump." Kurama said. The man's eyes turned and glared at Naruto.

"What'd you say?"

"I said it looks like a dump." Kurama said. The swordsman blinked.

"That cat talked." He stated. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, so? Got a problem with talking cats?" The blonde asked. The man shook his head.

"Nope, in fact my adoptive daughter has a cat that talks too, I just didn't know there were more than one." The man said. The two nodded.

"I see...so what is this exercise you wanted me to take so that you will teach me how to use my swords?" The blonde dragonslayer asked. The man grinned before snapping his fingers. Naruto's and Kurama's eyes widened when they felt movement to their left. Naruto quickly ducked and Kurama leaped upwards. The fox released a fireball to the left, but an ice wall suddenly formed out of thin air causing a small explosion from the point of contact. Naruto stood up, but froze when he felt something cold placed against his neck.

"Zabuza-sama, who is this boy?" Naruto turned to see a young girl, about one year older than himself, with long black hair and matching eyes. She had a rather curvaceous figure and wore a dark blue battle kimono that seemed to help highlight it. The kimono had a white snowflake pattern on it and she wore a pair of dark blue sandals. In her hands were trios of senbon made entirely of ice. They were currently being held to his jugular, but Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"It's not polite to point sharp objects." Naruto growled as the unknown girl gasped when she was suddenly sent flying through the air by a whirlwind that appeared out of nowhere. Haku flipped in the air and managed to plant her feet against a tree trunk and used it to ricochet towards the blonde, however, Zabuza appeared in between her and the blonde in a blur of movement and snatched her out of the air before placing her gently on the ground.

"Now, now Haku. No need to fight...yet. This boy wants me to teach him how to use a sword so I will teach him, but I need him to pass a test I have in mind first." The man, now identified as Zabuza grinned.

"Who are you?" The man waved his hand as Kurama settled back down on Naruto's head.

"Whoops, where are my manners? Name's Zabuza Momochi and this is my adoptive daughter I had told you about earlier, Haku. Now boy, the test I have in mind for you is that I want you to fight Haku. However, you don't use magic and you only use your swords. You can mix in melee combat with your sword strikes, but also you can't have your cat fight with you just like Haku."

"Hmmm?" Kurama seemed intrigued by the mention of another Exceed, having ignored Zabuza when he mentioned it earlier. Suddenly there was a slight chill in the air when a small, ice blue Exceed appeared on Haku's shoulder.

"Haku-sama, what is wrong? Are you alright?" The small cat asked. The cat was the same size as Kurama with shining, emerald green eyes. Her ears and tail were tipped with what looked like sharp pieces of ice.

"No, Yuki-chan. Everything is fine." Haku told her cat. Yuki nodded before looking at the fox costumed cat in front of her and gasped when she saw him pull back his fox head-like hood to reveal his face and head.

"You are like me?" Yuki gasped. Kurama nodded.

"Aye, I am an Exceed just like you." The crimson cat replied.

"Your partner is strong." Naruto complimented on Yuki's magic power. Haku nodded.

"As is yours. Fire and Ice do not mix well though." Haku said as she remembered when Kurama sent a fireball her way. The two Exceed jumped off of their partners and walked to the side as they watched their partners slip into fighting stances.

"Seal Magic: Release!" Naruto yelled. The seals on his wrists glowed before he summoned forth Ascalon and Excalibur.

"Zabuza-sama...those are...?" Her surrogate father nodded.

"Yes, those are the blades of Merlin. The legendary first mage, the last person to possess such tools was my master." Naruto froze at that piece of information.

"Your master...was Kushina Uzumaki?" Naruto asked with wide eyes. Zabuza flinched before summoning forth his giant blade and held out, the tip of the sharp blade stopping just in front of his face.

"How do you know the name of my master?" Zabuza growled out. Naruto chuckled.

"How ironic...my mother really did a good job with you." Naruto laughed. Zabuza's eyes widened as he lowered his blade.

"Kushina-shishou was your mother? She never told me she was married...or had a child!" Zabuza gasped. Naruto frowned slightly.

"Well when you are a member of the Ten Wizard Saints you don't want many things to be public." Naruto replied. The student of Kushina nodded in agreement.

"True...I will address that matter later. For now, you and Haku will fight to determine whether or not you are worthy to be my student. Even if you are Kushina's son as you claim to be, I will not take on just anybody to be my student." Naruto nodded as he gripped his blades tightly. Haku summoned forth ice senbon out of thin air and slipped into a fighting stance.

"BEGIN!" Zabuza yelled as he leaped away.

Naruto roared as he leaped towards Haku with amazing speed. Haku easily dodged the vertical slice from Ascalon before jumping in the air and with a flick of her wrists, sent two senbon at the blonde. Naruto raised Excalibur and sent forth a blast of golden flame.

He jumped after Haku and performed a double vertical slice before twisting and going into an upward diagonal strike with Excalibur. Haku avoided both attacks before she raised her arm and stuck a few ice senbon in her opponent's arm. Naruto felt his arm go cold, but he used Ascalon's silver flames to keep his arm from going numb as he melted the frozen weapons.

He and Haku landed on the ground, but the black haired girl didn't let up as she threw another volley of senbon at him.

.....

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