Zabuza snarled as he back handed another crimson haired girl that charged at him. She quickly burst into a cloud of smoke before being replaced by another. Pests, the lot of them. Like a cockroach that constantly bred and bred, the clones charged him over and over again without an end in sight. He swung his blade and deflected yet another volley of shuriken, sending them over the side of the bridge and down into the mist covered waves.
The damned trackers they had on their side made their Kirigakure no Jutsu essentially useless.
"Twelve o'clock!" He heard the irritable voice of that damned brat who sniffed them out and a fireball soared out from the mist. Slamming his blade down onto the ground, as he hid behind the makeshift shield and began forming a chain of hand seals as the fireball engulfed the area around him. Another clone of Naruko rushed out from the mist and took a wild swing with her kunai, forcing Zabuza to jump out of the way.
Zabuza landed not too far off from his blade, stood up to his full height and roared.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu)!"
The waters beneath the bridge swirled and bubbled before they rose, higher and higher until they were well above the bridge. The pillar of water towered over them all for a brief moment before it began to morph and take shape, taking on the image of a watery dragon. The briny beast gave a roar that sounded like waves crashing against the shore before it dived downwards, intent on washing away Zabuza's foes.
The clone yelped before it dispersed itself, passing on the information to Naruko.
"Oh shit!" The redhead cried, "Water dragon! Incoming!" Kakashi jumped in front of the team, hand brought up to his masked mouth.
"Katon: Houka (Fire Style: Rocket)!" A fireball the size of his fist blasted out of his mouth and mask at an incredible speed. The small fireball zipped through the air at great speeds and slammed against the face of the great water beast before exploding in a grand show of fire. The blast it left behind was nearly ten times the size of the original ball of fire Kakashi had spat out. The face of the dragon evaporated almost instantaneously and the momentum behind the attack slowed down, causing the leftover water that formed the dragon to splash across the floor.
Kakashi panted for a moment before regaining his breath. The move took too much chakra out of him, hence the explosive ending, and was one of the main reasons he didn't want to use it. In fact, it was probably the second or third time he had actually used it after stealing the technique from a runaway shinobi.
"Not too bad, Kakashi." Zabuza remarked, "But without your weird friend here to help you, it's going to be much easier to take you out." Indeed. The two had been separated by the attacks of two swordsmen, unable to stick together while simultaneously watching out for their Genin.
Kakashi gave a dry smile from behind his mask. "Why, I could say the same to you too."
"I think you're forgetting something..."
"To the left!" Kiba barked and Sasuke unleashed another volley of throwing weapons at the area he was directed to. However, all that he struck and pinned to the bridge was a handful of strong smelling herbs and plants.
Three sets of eyes and an eye widened in surprise.
"Huh?!"
Zabuza chuckled with great pleasure at their surprise, pulling Kubikiribocho out from the ground from where it stood and placed it across his shoulder.
"... My apprentice is better than those brats you call yours."
From the mist, the mysterious and masked figure of Haku dove out and tackled Naruko backwards, a forearm on her neck and the other on her shoulder, catching all of them by surprise.
"Naruko!" The three males cried simultaneously, attempting to make a move to chase after the teammate that had been separated from them. However, the water that surrounded them began to pool together, creating identical replicas of Zabuza.
"Oh no, you don't." Zabuza muttered as the Mizu Bunshin began to cordon off access to the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and attacked.
"Mizu Bunshin are only a tenth of the strength of the original! I'll leave them to you." Kakashin instructed his team and turned around to attack Zabuza, kunai in hand while Kiba and Sasuke, obviously disgruntled that their best friend/crush had been taken away, began to fight the clones with an even greater drive than before.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu ( Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)!"
"Tsuuga (Passing Fang)!"
Naruko felt her back slam against the floor of the bridge. The wind was knocked out of her, but she regained it quickly before returning the favour to Haku. Still on the floor, she brought her knees up to her chest and placed the soles of her feet onto Haku's chest before kicking the boy off of her, catapulting the feminine boy over her. Haku landed perfectly, a leg outstretched to the side as he crouched with his other.
"Ugh... Why me?" Naruko groaned as she rubbed her back, getting back up to her feet. "You into girls or something? Not that there's anything wrong with that... Just a little too rough." She joked, mistaking Haku's gender. Then she made a grimace out of awkwardness when Haku continued to be silent. "Tough crowd." She muttered to herself.
Haku ignored the extra and unnecessary chatter meant to unintentionally rile him up. Regardless if his foe perceived him as a girl or not, he was certain the redhead would still fight just the same. The girl didn't come off as the type who would pull her punches. "Why you? You and your clones were the main piece that was stopping Zabuza-sama from attacking. I acted on my own accord and removed you from the equation."
"Why though?" Naruko asked, puzzled by her enemy's behaviour. Haku tilted his head to the side, unsure of what she was questioning. "He doesn't seem to treat you well at all." From what little she had seen during their battle, Zabuza constantly barked orders rudely and commanded Haku like an attack dog.
"As his tool, furthering his goals is all that matters to me."
"Ooohhhhh..." The daughter of the Hokage had a look of sudden realisation, bobbing her head as she realised what Haku was. "You're one of those people."
Haku's delicate face crinkled behind his mask.
"... Excuse me?"
"A mindless drone," Naruko clarified, "People who blindly follow others without even so much as a thought. Like tools for them to use." Naruko knew of them well. Her dad had told her about that shrivelled bastard, Danzo, and his little group of brainwashed shinobi that followed his every word and will. According to her dad, the group was now defunct but Naruko felt otherwise. She couldn't exactly explain it, nor prove it, but deep within her she believed that they weren't exactly gone. Maybe for a little while, but not permanently. Her dad couldn't exactly arrest Danzo for going against his orders mainly because there was no substantial evidence against him, and it really irked Naruko. So she made it a habit to glare viciously at the feeble-looking old man whenever she could.
"A tool I may be, but so long as I further Zabuza-sama's goals, I do not mind being labelled as such."
"Fair enough." Naruko admitted. She didn't expect Haku to sway to her words. Maybe she could've tried if they had met prior, but with zero idea of who Haku really was behind that mask, Naruko didn't exactly have much of a choice in what to do.
"You seem awfully calm. Did you not see my powers?" Haku muttered softly, but at the rate Naruko was concentrating, Haku could've been right next to her, whispering directly into her ear. The boy could not tell if it was simply bravado or if she truly was that confident to face him. His current foe was brash, confident and loud, but even then it seemed as thought it was not completely unfounded. He gestured to the sea that surrounded them with a wave of his hand, "I can create ice out of thin air. It is a dangerous element, especially when I have access to a sea's worth of water."
"So you're asking me if I should be scared?" Haku didn't reply and Naruko took it as a "yes". "Probably. But right now, admittedly, all I'm feeling is excitement. Maybe it's because I've never gotten the chance to actually go completely all out during a fight, mainly because I've never had my life threatened in such a way." Scratching her nose, she smiled cheekily. "Not even against Sasuke-teme have I ever gone balls to the wall... But before we fight or anything, I gotta at least know your name."
Haku supposed that it wouldn't hurt to at least be polite.
"Yuki Haku." He bowed slightly, respectfully obliging Naruko's request.
Naruko grinned, jabbing a thumb to her heart proudly.
"Namikaze Naruko. Future Hokage of Konoha!"
Haku stared at her for a moment more before he gave a small genuine smile.
"Is that your dream? Dreams are... nice to have, aren't they? To make Zabuza-sama's dreams come true... that is my dream."
"Your dream is to assist Zabuza...? I guess I was wrong about you being a mindless drone. Sort of. And no... that isn't my dream. At least, not right now. My current goal is to bring my brother back home!"
"I see." Haku smiled. Despite her rough attitude and way of speaking, Haku could see the good inside of her. Such people were rare in their current age. "I wish you luck in your future endeavours."
Naruko didn't really get what he meant by that. Surely Haku expected himself to win, right?
The air grew tense as both parties shifted slightly, angling themselves in the positions they felt comfortable starting off with. Haku wasn't going to kill Naruko, but hopefully put her under long enough for Zabuza-sama to finish her team off.
The masked shinobi swung his arm outwards and a wave of ice senbon flew towards Naruko.
Naruko fell back and raised her arms. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Smoke came and went, summoning a large horde of clones in it's place. The clones were immediately dispelled by the incoming senbon, leaving behind a thick cloud of smoke that Haku failed to see through.
The air behind him shivered and Haku raised his right up to his face, bracing himself as a massive kick struck where his cheek would've been. The blow behind the strike sent the boy spiralling to the side but he quickly picked himself up with only a bruise to his forearm.
"Damn." Naruko frowned a little, "I was hoping that it would work. Was my Shunshin (Body Flicker) too slow?" Naruko asked Haku, but before he could even answer she had already moved on. "Yeah, I guess it was. Oh well, Plan B, I suppose." The girl shrugged before she went up in a plume of smoke.
A clone?! Haku widened his eyes from behind his mask before he heard the ground rumble.
"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Style: Groundhog Technique Decapitation)!" The cement floor beneath Haku's feet crumbled and a pair of hands reached out, grabbing his ankles. However, Haku was quicker, escaping the hands right as they grabbed air, landing a distance away from the original.
"Oi, oi, oi." The hands pushed the weakened floor aside and out popped her head. Crimson locks pooled around the floor after she pulled her head out, making Naruko look like some unique, whiskered flower. "You telling me that didn't work? Are ya serious? Do you know how dangerous it was hiding down here? If the bridge hadn't been built to be so damn thick, then I would've fallen right through it." Naruko pulled the rest of herself out of the hole, not even bothering to brush the crumbs of cement that clung to her clothes.
"You..." Haku narrowed his eyes, watching her like a hawk, "You're a dangerous one." Completely unpredictable, he had no idea just what she was capable of.
"You don't even know the half of it." She rubbed her stomach and laughed as if what she had just said was an inside joke. Haku didn't understand, but what he did know was that his foe was now classified as a genuine threat to him. Somewhere, deep within his body, Haku felt that if she wasn't chained down by her teacher and his orders, she would've somehow managed to beat Zabuza-sama. Although that was highly unlikely, he just couldn't quash the feeling.
"Hey, Haku! Catch!" Naruko returned the earlier favour and flung a handful of shuriken at Haku, who moved only slightly out of the way to avoid it. It turned out to be a bad mistake.
One shuriken, hidden amongst the many she had thrown, revealed it's true nature to be a Kage Bunshin Henge'd into a shuriken. In agonisingly slow motion, Haku watched with wide, shocked eyes as he was unable to do anything to stop the clone, who was right in his face, waving happily at him. His eye moved slowly to the clone's other hand, which he noticed was cocked all the way behind her her head.
Years of training under the Yondaime, Ninjutsu lessons from her uncle figure and the occasional Taijutsu class from the man with the bushiest brows did give Naruko the ability to hand most people and slightly over their asses.
"HOOoooRRRAAah!" Like a whip lashing out, the fist connected to his face—mask—and delivered a haymaker that sent stars splaying out across the inside of Haku's head. Much like before, the blow placed behind the punch sent Haku through the air, head over heels. However, this time he was unable to catch himself, due to being completely and utterly stunned from the blow, and fell hard against the cold floor. He rolled and rolled until he finally came to a stop, disorientated from the strike. The world spun and spun in his head, but even then, Haku started to pick himself up with a slight struggle. Hands on the floor, the boy pushed himself up to a kneel before standing up, staggering as he did so.
He would not lose here. He could not lose here. Zabuza-sama needed his help and he would not fail his master. Broken tools were thrown away, and Haku didn't want that fate.
So caught up in their fight, the two failed to notice someone else approaching from the beginning of the bridge.