"Oh? What's this? You've been holding back on me? Cheeky runts. That pisses me off!"
Clone-Zabuza swings his massive sword at my neck. I duck down, dodging completely for the first time since our fight started.
"So you were holding back! You couldn't dodge before! Wonderful! Maybe you are worth playing with!"
...
What follows next is a flurry of blows. I dodged the sword, he dodged my kunai stabs as Sasuke peppered us bother with fireballs.
This isn't working. I need to do something different. This is either going to work, or it is going to kill me.
On Clone-Zabuza's next swing I do something crazy. Something monumentally stupid. I raise my arm and extend chakra strings to Kubikiribocho in an attempt to stop it.
I don't limit myself to making strings from just my fingers.
I use my arms, my legs, my chest, my everything. Chakra strings doesn't give justice to the sheer magnitude of strings I used on the crazy sword. Hundreds. Thousands. I made an uncountable number of strings.
I have to give Sasori props. Not only could he make a shit ton of strings but he was so good at micromanaging that he could use them to control 100 puppets. I could barely attach them all to one object less than a meter away from me.
My gamble worked.
"Huh? Why can't I move Kubikiribocho? Magnet release doesn't work on it! What are you -"
WOOSH! SPLASH!
Sasuke's fireball finally connected with the clone. Show time.
TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG
The five kunai that Clone-Zabuza knocked out of my hand fly towards the real Zabuza from different angles.
"Tch. Pesky runts." Zabuza disengages the water prison in favor of not being impaled. Kakashi bursts forth with a vengeance. He's beyond furious.
Kakashi destroys Zabuza. It isn't even close. Kakashi has Zabuza cornered, all but dead. Our sensei is taunting him, holding his victory over Zabuza. Kakashi wants Zabuza to be utterly broken when he finally ends his life.
SHINK
Zabuza falls over dead from three senbon to the back of his neck. I forgot about Haku.
"Thank you for providing an opening on my target, shinobi-san. Without you two fighting, I never would have had a chance of killing him." The masked kunoichi says.
White mask. Fancy yukata. Long black hair. Yep, this is Haku.
"I will take the body to dispose of now. You all have my thanks." Slinging the dead Zabuza over her shoulder, Haku shunshins away.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yes Alvarcus?"
"Did some random hunter nin just steal our kill?"
"I believe so."
"Okay, so just to make sure I am not hallucinating, that was a kid. She didn't look any older than us."
"One of the hard lessons of the world: there are shinobi younger than you who are stronger than me. Remember that, and never underestimate someone."
How true is that. Haku could kick my ass. Oh hell, I have to fight her in a week.
"That was what let you win against Zabuza's clone. He underestimated your imagination and creativity."
"Hey, Alvarcus?" Oh good, Sakura is still alive. I wondered where she went. I couldn't really keep an eye on her during my fight. "How did you set your kunai traps up? Don't you have to touch the anchor points?"
"I did something new. How my kunai traps work is that I attached, or primed, a string to the kunai, then I have to touch the anchor to set the strings. Prime, then anchor. That is how it works."
"You 'primed' your strings to the anchor points first didn't you? Then you anchored the strings to the kunai in your hand." Dammit Sasuke! Let me explain my technique!
"Well yeah. I don't know why I never thought of it before. It works the same either way, I make the strings elastic so that they pull the objects together. The heavier object doesn't move, and the lighter one gets launched."
"You made a taijutsu style that incorporates losing your weapons? That has to be the single most stupid thing I have ever heard. Who willingly gives up their weapons during a fight?" Way to make me feel good Kakashi.
"But that is just it! I didn't lose my weapons! Not once! Technically, at one point I was using seven kunai at once. My five trapped kunai, and the two I was holding."
"Hmm... I suppose you might be right. But you could run out of kunai in your pouch." Quit trying to poke holes in this Kakashi!
"Hello? Do you know me? Do you really think I didn't have chakra strings attached to those kunai to bring them back to me? Hell that is the first thing I do whenever I draw one! My kunai are retractable."
"Okay, you've obviously thought this out more than I expected. You and your chakra strings."
"Thanks Kakashi-sensei. I'm not that stupid."
"Glad to hear it. Now, the mission isn't over yet. We still need to get the bridge builder to his bridge."
Everyone looks to Tazuna. "He-he, sorry about all this. You can rest at my place when we get there!"
"Good. Let's go." With that, Kakashi starts to walk away. He freezes, his whole body tenses up, and he falls flat on his face.
"Kakashi-sensei!" We all rush over to him. Sakura starts to look over him for anything wrong.
"Pulse, check. Breathing, check. No life threatening wounds. What could be wrong with him?"
"Chakra exhaustion is my guess. Using the Sharingan can't be that easy, and he was throwing some high level jutsu around. Do you have anyway to check his chakra levels Sakura?"
"I know the theory, but I've never done it before. I could mess up and hurt him!"
"Sakura, breath. You can do it. You are the smartest kunoichi in our class after all! Besides, I'd rather know if it was chakra exhaustion or internal bleeding that caused this. I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to identify internal bleeding."
"Okay I can try." Sakura places her hand over Kakashi's heart, and she scrunches her face up in concentration. "It feels like... he has almost no chakra. I think. I'm getting the reactions that the books say I would get, but I can't know for sure."
"Good enough. I trust you. Now the real question: who's going to carry him? I vote Sasuke."
"Not happening. Make Tazuna do it. He did nothing the entire fight."
"I'm the client! You don't make clients do stuff like that!"
"Well..." I pause, not sure if I want to offer to do extra work. "I have always wanted to try puppetry, but I've never had a puppet to practice with before."
"You can't make Kakashi-sensei your puppet! That is wrong!"
"Fine, you carry him then Sakura."
"... If he gets mad at us, I am blaming you."
"Noted. Now lets see, how to do this?"
After five minutes of trial and error, I figure out how to move Kakashi around like a rag doll. It is not pretty, but it'll do. With that figured out, we head to Tazuna's house.
...
Night Time, At Tazuna's House
"This is your house?" Sasuke questions Tazuna. I can't blame him, Tazuna looks like a street bum. His house, on the other hand, looks very well kept and surprisingly large. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, brat! I am sure! Now let's get inside." Tazuna unlocks the door and we enter the house. "Tsunami and Inari are probably asleep. I'll show you to the guest bedrooms. Boys in one, girls in the other." He's going to enforce that rule? Fine, it's his house. I'll be okay with Sasuke and Kakashi, but Sakura all alone? That might be bad.
"Alright kid, put your sense in this room. Then you and pinky can use the one across the hallway." Sorry what?
"Tazuna?"
"What brat? You got a problem with that? You want your own room? Too damn bad! You have to share."
"No no, that's fine. It's just, you now I am a boy right?" Tazuna freezes. Slowly he looks me up and down.
"I'll be damned. This whole time I thought... never mind."
Must not maim the client. Must not maim the client. Must not maim the client.
Snicker. Giggle.
"Not. A. Word." Sakura and Sasuke look at each other, then burst out laughing.
"He does have a rather... slender build. Most commonly seen among kunoichi."
"Oh my Kami I can totally see it! He would be the prettiest girl ever! Just need to style his hair better, find some nice clothes and he could give me a run for my money!"
"I will kill you. They will never find the bodies. No one will know."
"Oh shut up brats and go to sleep." Tazuna orders. "I'll introduce you to my family tomorrow." We all go into our rooms and hit the hay. Stupid Tazuna.
...
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