After the fight, we reach the old man's house without a problem in an hour. Kakashi took a rest in the room, the old man had provided us, he also tells us, that he needed a few days to recover from the strain Sharingan had put on his body.
In a forest, the escaped Zabuza was resting on a tree recovering from the battle, when Haku suddenly appears beside him and asks him about his condition." I'm fine, I just have to rest a few" Zabuza replies to haku. Then he looks at haku " how long are you going to wear that Fake mask? Take it off," Zabuza orders haku.
" I forgot because it's been a while since I used this" haku explains as she takes her mask off revealing her beautiful face behind the mask. She continues, " That was a smart move, if you had prolonged that fight any longer, The victory would be uncertain." Zabuza doesn't respond and tries to get up, feeling pain throughout the body.
" You should rest for a few days to fully recover but maybe, if it's you, you'll be able to move soon, enough, Zabuza-san." haku says to Zabuza cheerfully as she gets up, looking at the clear bright ocean.
"The fog has lifted."
" Yeah…"
" Will you be okay next time?"
" Next time, I can deal with that Sharingan" Zabuza replies to haku.
*
After resting for a while, in the old man's house. Kakashi decides to train both Naruto and Sakura. He gives them, the chakra training to stay on the branch of the tree upside down as much as possible on it. He also makes them light par between them. While a boy, the grandson of an old man, watches them.
Meanwhile, Sasuke does his training privately in the deep forest, since the training was important for his plan and he didn't want to expose his powers yet.
In a deep forest where Sasuke was training, black flames were burning a tree, but suddenly the flames stops, No it gets extinguished. Sasuke grabs his head in pain and his starts eyes bleeding.
[Congratulation, host, you were able to complete it]
' Yeah, with this that we should be able to get Gatoh,' Sasuke thinks.
"Let's head, for now, I need to rest to recover, my eyes are in pain," Sasuke says to AI, and they head home, accomplishing their goal.
*
It's been 3 days after the Zabuza fight and nothing had happened, we were repeating the same routine. we had agreed on Training and guarding the old man. Today we were heading to the bridge with the old man, Kakashi had already recovered, yesterday so he was coming with us today.
Naruto, on the other hand, was still sleeping, getting motivated by the old man's story, he trained day and night to improve, so Kakashi decided to leave Naruto, to let him rest today. I had also left a clone as always in the house in case they attack the house.
*
Today was sunny and everyone was cheerful, enjoying the weather. we walk for a while before arriving at the bridge, but the workers weren't working but on the ground. I know this was the work of Zabuza and haku. They are going to attack us, the same way in the anime, this was good and was the ideal situation for me.
A direct flight between us. Last time I hold back as much as possible since, if they know my true prowess, then they might just try to wait out more and ambushed us waiting for the right situation. Which would be boring and the situation I would want, or worst case scenario they could abandon the mission because of the risk.
I needed to hold back enough that Zabuza wouldn't think me too much of a threat. Which was a delicate balance, I had to pull off, thankfully it worked somehow.
while the whole team was accessing the situation and asking for information from the workers suddenly a thick mist starts to form covering the whole area. "He's here," Kakashi tells everybody, Then, a seven Zabuza clone appears surrounding them, but in a flash, every single one of them gets slashed, cut in half by Sasuke.
"Oh...He can defeat the seven water clones that easily, Was he that strong, or did he get stronger?" Zabuza says to haku appearing casually in front of them.
"Go, take care of the Uchiha brat"
"Yes, sir" haku replies.
Upon getting ordered, Haku takes out kunai and spins fast-moving toward Sasuke creating a small tornado, she approaches him covering the distance between them fast and she attacks him but He disappears leaving an afterimage, appearing right beside her, he kicks her sending her flying off the bridge. He also jumps off the bridges following haku.
"Sasuke" Sakura shouts.
" Let, Sasuke handle this, Sakura you should protect tazuna=San and I will handle Zabuza. Kakashi orders Sakura. After listening to Kakashi she nods her head and focuses on protecting the old man.
'That kid, did he get stronger in these 3 days. I know that kid was holding back to some extent but to kick haku off the bridge' Zabuza thinks in his head, looking at the side of the bridge, Sasuke had jumped but gets quickly interrupted by Kakashi.
" Your opponent is me, Zabuza so doesn't even think about other things while you are fighting me. " Kakashi says to Zabuza and throws a kunai at him.
*
After getting kicked by Sasuke, She tries to quickly recover from the damage while falling off the bridge and lands on the water just in time putting chakra on her foot. she wipes the blood from her mouth then she sees a figure also falling off the bridge, it was Sasuke, and without hesitating, she throws multiple needles at him.
Sasuke looks at her and smirks dodging all of her attacks moving nimbly in a mid-air at different angles. upon seeing her attack fail. she approaches a different tactic, she quickly performs Ox → Horse → Ram handseals in a second and mutters " Water Release: Cold Sky Water Attack " shooting numerous amounts of extremely large jets of water from her mouth at high speeds which can easily shatter rock at Sasuke.
Sasuke quickly makes a handseals and releases Fire Release: Great Flame Flower creating a multitude of fireballs to counter haku. Both of their jutsu clash creating a huge amount of mist covering their sight. Sasuke quickly takes this chance and lands on the water a little further away from haku but the moment he creates small waves on the water giving away his location, Then he hears a voice.
"That was a great kick, I couldn't even see the attack until I felt pain on my body. It looks like you were holding previously, or perhaps you got stronger."
" Looks like someone was observing our fight, isn't that kinda unfair." Sasuke activities his sharingan.
" That's just the world is... UNFAIR! " Haku replies as she performs numerous hand seals creating a dozen needles made of water " Flying water of a thousand kills. " She mutters her voice echoing in the mist and attacks him.
Sasuke sees these needles hovering above him surrounding him suddenly moving at him. he stays calm and walks toward haku. She starts attacking with her sharp water needles but Sasuke dodges every single of them. The needles only grazing his after image. Haku gets desperate seeing Sasuke closing the gap between them and attacks him with all of the remaining water needles at once to stop him.
Sasuke looks at all of the water needles flying at him. He puts a large amount of chakra on his foot and dashes forward blowing away the mist and creating huge waves behind him, he blitzes through water needles arriving in front of her. He quickly throws a sharp punch right in her guts putting haku on her knee, Due to immersed pain, she starts to cough blood on the water.
the mist starts to fade away, Sasuke doesn't do anything to haku. he just stands there waiting for her to recover. after a few seconds, recovering her breaths and losing some pain. she looks at Sasuke.
" Why?... Aren't you finishing me off? "
" This short exchange between us, I could tell you are a lot stronger and you had also plenty of opportunities to attack my vital organ to finish me off, but you didn't, why?" haku asks Sasuke.
"Humph... Why didn't I kill you, huh? well, actually... why should I tell you, I have my reasons. But I do want to fight you and I know this isn't everything you have to offer.
" So, do it now, before I changed my mind," Sasuke tells haku. She immediately steps back from Sasuke creating a distance between them.
" You will regret this," haku tells him. As she forms a hand seal soon the air starts to get cold and ice starts to form from the water, Slowly creating mirrors surrounding them." Master technique, Mirror of ice crystals." She announces the jutsu name.
She walks toward the mirror and it starts to shine bright, haku enters it and her image appear on it. Suddenly, every mirror starts to produce the same image of haku. " I will show you, my full capability then," she says to Sasuke then attacks from the back throwing her sharp needle but Sasuke dodges it. She throws Another needle, but it gets caught by Sasuke.
He throws it back at the mirror, destroying it. Seeing her attack fail, she doesn't get discouraged but continues her barrage of needles attack. Sasuke on the other keeps dodging it, he was calm and confident in his ability. He was focused on dodging the attack, Treating, this as training rather than a life and death situation.
*
While, at the old man's house, two thugs with katanas arrive in front of his house. 'I wonder, what the original is doing right now.' The clone of Sasuke talks to himself on the roof guarding the house as ordered by his original, Then he hears a footstep. he stays quiet focusing on his ears listening.
"One... No, it's two people, and it's male, they are coming here." The clone confirms it, he quickly moves and watches through the roof. " It's those guys" the clone quickly recognized them. The henchman of Gatoh. 'If they are here, then that means. it has already started the fight.' the clone thinks looking at them arriving near the house. " well anyway, I should do my job " the clone talks to himself.
The thugs arrive in front of the house, then just before they kick the door. Sasuke's clone appears behind them. He quickly gives them a chop on the back of the neck, making them unconscious. He grabs both of them and changes the location, arriving a little further away from the house.
Naruto also arrives in the house after Sasuke's clone took them away. he felt suspicious seeing the seeing blade marks on the trees and dead wild boar towards the old man's house. He returns to check on them to make sure everything was okay. After he is sure nothing is wrong, he quickly runs toward the bridge, not aware of the events going around him.
After the clone took them further away from the house. He wakes them up and uses Sharingan to get information on gatoh whereabouts. Soon After, he's done getting the information from the thugs. He quickly moves to the location of the gatoh to capture him.
" I got the information on gator's whereabouts now, I should go and capture him. I wonder how's it going for him, will he really get haku, will the plan succeed? "
