Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 35: A Glimpse of Power
As Naruto had expected, the chakra from the demon fox contained more than just yang qi. It also held a great deal of pure and unadulterated…hatred.
'This is why most demon cultivators end up losing their minds… I think I understand it better now… still, this power is nothing to scoff at,' he thought.
"What are you?!" Haku yelled.
Outside the ice barrier, Kakashi and Zabuza had stopped their fight when they felt that powerful wave of chakra.
"What was that?!" Zabuza felt an incredibly violent chakra emerging from inside Haku's ice.
"Oh no!" Kakashi exclaimed. Unlike Zabuza, he was very familiar with that particular chakra. It was the same one he felt that day, fifteen years ago, when the Kyubi went loose and destroyed half of Konoha.
'Did the seal break?' The Jonin was starting to panic.
But then, all of a sudden, the baleful aura disappeared almost completely, leaving behind only a mild trace.
"What's going on in there?" Kakashi muttered.
"Sasuke… please be fine…" Sakura stared intensely at the dome of ice. She wanted nothing more than to rush in there.
Back inside the ice, Haku was watching in disbelief as the genin in front of him was able to put all of that violent energy under control.
"I'm surprised you didn't attack me while I was distracted…" Naruto glanced at the masked ninja.
"It's best if you give up… I don't want to have to kill you, like I did with your friend." Haku clutched at his senbons, trying to hide his nervousness. That chakra had shaken him to the core, but his Master always told him that a ninja must never show his emotions.
Naruto was also hiding something under his impassive gaze. He was currently in tremendous pain.
'I have put this demonic chakra under my control, but my body is not strong enough to contain it for long. I must hurry to finish this opponent, or I may truly die early in my new journey.'
He was beginning to regret taking this route. At the time, using the demon's chakra seemed like the least harmful option.
Naruto had other ways to give himself a short-lived boost of power. But they required sacrificing his own life force or his cultivation, and that was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.
'I would feel like a fool if I just die now for something like this.' Despite the pain, his body felt much better to move.
He could estimate that in his current state, he was around the Core Foundation in terms of power. This was also the moment when he could start to use all his stored energy to activate some real techniques.
Haku noticed Naruto moving his feet and knew it was time to attack. He did not know what the genin was capable of doing with that baleful chakra, but his instincts were telling him he had to finish this as fast as possible.
A dozen senbons ended up being stabbed on the surface of the stone bridge.
Naruto had disappeared from the spot with a speed that surpassed Haku's, and the next instant, he was in front of the masked ninja, prepared to attack.
In that small frame of time, Haku knew he was in danger and pushed his bloodline ability to its limit, creating the most powerful ice shield he could muster.
Naruto did not stop or change his movements. His right fist continued its path until it made contact with the ice.
For a moment, it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but then… all that demonic chakra they had all felt moments ago was transformed into a wave of pure heat and released right in front of Haku.
His ice shield cracked and disintegrated immediately under the blazing temperature. His body then began to burn so quickly that he did not have time to even consider using a substitution technique.
Haku was an incredibly talented ninja but had little experience in real combat. And the few times he had to fight, he would always overwhelm his opponents with his superior speed.
This was the first time he found someone who could move faster than him, and his reaction had been a fraction of a second too slow.
That is all it took.
Kakashi and Zabuza had not resumed their duel after feeling that demonic chakra. Both experts had been staring at the dome of ice, wondering what was going to happen next.
But neither of them had expected to see Haku's impenetrable prison being blown up by a massive wave of fire that emerged from the inside and erupted towards the sky.
Kakashi reacted immediately by taking Sakura and Tazuna away from the heat. Even at the distance they were in, it was enough to suffer severe burns.
But then he glanced back at the place where the ice used to be. His two students had been there a moment ago, but now there was nothing but a thick mist, created by the sudden evaporation of all that ice.
"No! Sasuke!" Sakura screamed and had to be stopped by her teacher so she would not rush in there.
"Wait here… I'm going to g-" Kakashi stopped talking when he felt something moving. The tomoe on his Sharingan began to spin as he put it to work and immediately saw traces of chakra moving in the mist.
It was hard to detect anything with precision because the demonic chakra of the Kyubi was currently covering most of the bridge.
But then, a figure emerged from within.
"Naruto?..." Sakura walked closer, and then… she gasped. "Sasuke!" She took off running when she saw that Naruto was carrying on his back the body of their teammate.
"Oh no!" Kakashi also moved immediately to Naruto's side. Had he lost a student already?
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