Published at 10th of May 2020 6:21 pm

First C-Rank Mission (4) – Part 18

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

[At some point, while Naruto was resting from his training]

“Kit, there is someone near you. His chakra signature is slightly familiar. But the seal is not weak enough yet, for me to able to properly sense chakra signatures.” Kurama said, alerting Naruto who was sitting on the ground, resting.

Naruto stood up and turned around.

“Hello there. I didn’t want to surprise you. My name is Haku, who are you?” The figure, whose chakra Kurama had felt to be familiar, asked.

“Wow, she is beautiful!” Naruto exclaimed inside of his mind.

“Kit, that’s a he.” Kurama corrected.

“Eh? Really? Still … he is more beautiful than most girls I’ve seen. Of course, Naru is the cutest~. Hinata-chan is not too far off either though~.” Naruto giggled to himself like a girl, still not having responded to Haku’s question.

“Are you okay?” Haku asked, slightly worried about the boy before him.

“Ah, don’t worry, I was just lost in thought. My name is Naruto, what are you doing out here Haku?” Naruto asked after having calmed himself.

Naruto did not even once suspect that Haku was the Oi-nin that he had seen take Zabuza away.

“I’m looking for herbs to heal someone ~.” Haku smiled.

“Need help?” Naruto offered, seeing no harm done in helping the beautiful boy.

“Sure, if you’d like.” Haku didn’t reject the boy’s help.

…

Sometime after Naruto had started helping Haku look for herbs, their conversation reached the topic of dreams.

“What do you dream of, Naruto?” Haku asked, sitting next to Naruto on the grass.

“Hmm. I want to become Hokage, so that I can create a proper home for my sister and me. The villagers hate us for being some kind of evil fox’s incarnations (sorry Kurama).” Naruto said, while mentally apologizing to Kurama. Kurama just chuckled, clearly not minding it at all.

“I see, that’s a great dream to have. I hope you succeed~.” Haku said while smiling sweetly at Naruto.

Naruto was once again stunned by his beauty.

“And, what do you dream of, Haku?” Naruto asked.

“I want to protect the person that is most precious to me. I need to be strong to do that. Don’t you think that, if people have something precious to them that they want to protect, their strength reaches the maximum?” Haku asked.

Naruto couldn’t help but nod: “True … I totally agree. Say, wanna be friends?”

Haku smiled, wanting to nod at first, before quickly shaking his head: “Sorry, I’d really like to do that but … (we’ll soon fight again …). Anyway … it was nice talking to you Naruto~, I won’t forget about you!”

Haku quickly stood up and jumped away, leaving a bewildered Naruto alone on the ground.

…

[A week later]

Kakashi had fully recovered and the two boys had finally learned how to properly climb trees without using their hands.

On this day, they had decided to guard the bridge as a complete Team 7, which had quickly proven itself to be the correct choice, as a deep fog soon covered the bridge.

…

“It’s nice seeing you again, Kakashi.” Zabuza chuckled.

“Likewise. Let’s fight?” Kakashi said with a serious expression on his face.

“So you knew that I was alive. Okay then, sure, let’s fight. Haku, you deal with the kids?” Zabuza said as a second figure appeared next to him.

No one present was surprised that the figure showed itself to be the Oi-nin that had taken away Zabuza earlier.

Naruto’s eyes widened at the name that that Oi-nin was called with, however: “Haku … you are that Oi-nin … I see, that’s why we couldn’t be friends.”

“Hello, Naruto, it’s nice seeing you again.” Haku said with a slightly sad laugh.

“Yea … I don’t really want to fight you.” Naruto said.

“Me neither, but we need to. We stand on different sides. And we both have dreams. My dream is it to protect Zabuza. This … is a fight of dreams. And I won’t hold back. You four, come at me.” Haku said.

Zabuza and Kakashi sped off to fight between themselves, leaving the five younger shinobi to fight between themselves.

“Naru. Can you do us a favor?” Sasuke looked back at Naru.

“Hmm?” Naru tilted her head in question.

“Can you stay back for now?” Naruto asked, having understood Sasuke’s intention.

“Please do, Naru-chan.” Sakura also nodded after being looked at by Naru.

“Alright … I’ll sit down on the bridge. You do your thing~, I believe in you three.” She smiled at them.

The three nodded and took out their weapons.

“Are you ready?” Haku asked, having waited for them to prepare themselves.

“Yes. (x3)” They said.

Just as the three rushed at Haku to fight him in a closer range, Naruto smiled: “So, he is not a coward after all!”

Naruto smiled because the shadow clone he had left behind at Tazuna’s house for safety reasons, had just dispersed and with him came the memory of Inari trying to protect his mother from thugs that Gato had sent.

Inari and his mother were safe now though.

With an even clearer mind, he rushed at Haku, intending to fight him, but never being ready to kill him. They were too much alike to do that.

They both wanted peace, they did not want to fight, but, alas … they were fated to fight with each other. Silently, they both decided to go easy on each other.

Naruto reached Haku first, quickly creating three clones before ordering them to jump at Haku.

Haku jumped back and threw three senbon at the clones, having remembered who the real Naruto was and not throwing one at him.

Naruto reached Haku and slashed at him with his kunai.

Haku easily blocked his kunai with a senbon of his own and kicked Naruto in the stomach, sending him flying.

Quickly Sasuke reached Haku and attacked him. Haku blocked his attack before also sending him flying to the ground. Sasuke landed on his back next to Naruto, wincing in pain.

Sakura stopped in her tracks … being intimidated by her enemy.

“If they were already so easily defeated … then what can I even do …” Sakura grew scared, doubting herself.

A soft and gentle voice appeared next to Sakura’s ear: “It’s okay Sakura. It’s okay. Believe in yourself. He is stronger than you three individually, but if you attack with Sasuke and Naruto together, then you have a chance.”

Naru knew that, realistically, Sakura had no chance at fighting against Haku on her own … but she needed this experience.

Sasuke and Naruto stood up, Sakura, who had regained her determined expression, looked at both of them and they nodded.

They, once again, rushed at Haku, but now they all ran at the same speed. Naruto and Sasuke had slowed down to allow Sakura to run at the same speed as them.

This caused them to be able to attack from three sides at the same time, making it harder for Haku to defend against their attack.

Haku had some trouble blocking their strikes, which caused him to get hit in the face by Sasuke’s knee.

Haku was thrown back and fell onto his back.

Zabuza, who had seen that, had shock fill his eyes: “Haku is being beaten by them? By those kids? They were frozen in fear back then-“

But his thoughts were soon interrupted by Kakashi who had attacked him again. They resumed their fight at a slight distance away from the kids.

As Haku stood up, Zabuza said while blocking one of Kakashi’s blows: “Haku, at this rate, you’ll die and your dream with you.”

“Yes, I understand.” Haku said as an eerie-cold aura enveloped him.

His hands formed a seal as he said: “Sorry, but … I need to defeat you all!”

Rapidly, Ice blocks rose from the ground and they formed a perfect half sphere, enclosing the three teens that had been fighting him.

They had no way out now, they were trapped.

Haku stepped behind one of the ice blocks and vanished into it. A few seconds later, he appeared to be inside every single one of the ice blocks at the same time.

Sasuke’s, Naruto’s and Sakura’s eyes widened in shock and dread.

They could already guess what would come next.

Haku had appeared inside of more than ten ice blocks and they couldn’t escape the circle at all. They were completely trapped, and they could not know where he would attack from at this point in time.

“These are mirrors.” Sasuke noticed.

“Right … let me show you my true abilities. This is my kekkei genkai, ice release!” Haku shouted as he started throwing senbon from every direction.

Quickly, the three teens trapped inside of the ice mirror prison stood back to back and deflected the incoming projectiles.

This continued on for a while, before Haku grew faster and faster, seemingly having endless amounts of these needles.

At some point, one of the needles hit Naruto and he cried out in pain before failing to defend against several more incoming needles.

His scream caused a momentary lapse of attention in Sakura and she was also hit by several incoming needles.

They both fell to the ground, lots of needles sticking to their body, every wound leaking a bit of blood.

Sasuke, who was still able to defend himself for a small while, looked at his teammates in worry.

“Give up … you cannot win anymore, you are alone now.” Haku said.

“No, I cannot give up now ... you hurt them too much already ... I'll kill you! Also … if I fail against you … then how will I ever fight against him …” Sasuke said, his face warping in anger.

Several needles threatened to hit the two figures lying on the ground and Sasuke, with anger clouding his mind, saw no other way but to jump in the way and to take the needles with his body.

Soon, his whole stomach and chest was covered in needles and he screamed out in pain.

“You- … I thought you didn’t want to kill Naruto!” Sasuke shouted, whilst his face warped in pain.

Haku stopped his assault, seeing that his enemies couldn’t fight anymore: “This was a fight of dreams. It needed to be done, in order to protect the one that is precious to me!”

Below his mask, a single tear flowed down Haku’s face, however, no one but him knew of this.

“Haku, you are still too soft …” Zabuza mumbled, seeing their interactions and seeing that Haku had still not killed them.

Sasuke glared at Haku before falling to the ground.

“Forgive me, Naru …” Sasuke whispered, looking in the direction that he thought the bridge to be at, his eyes had changed to be a deep red. His sharingan. He had awakened the one tomoed sharingan ... but it was too late.

…

“Their chakra signatures … they are vanishing!” Naru shouted, having felt their diminishing chakra presence, signifying that they were quickly losing life force. Sakura was hit by only a few needles and would survive.

Naruto would survive because Kurama’s chakra would heal him if he didn’t get hurt any further.

However … Sasuke was … already close to death right now.

“I should have known that this would happen … but who would have known that boy to be this strong, to be able to defeat them all this quickly … my sensor abilities really don’t seem to be all that great, huh?” Naru laughed at her own inability to sense her loved one’s pain. She had only realized what was going on when it was already too late. She cursed herself for being naive.

“He will not get away with this.” Naru said as she let her tailed beast aura run free, she did not care anymore.

Soon, not one tail, but 9 full tails appeared behind her. They were not partially formed, but fully formed instead. She had fully unleashed her aura now.

Instantly, an oppressive golden aura descended upon the city. It was filled with pure hatred and killing intent, causing the weaker ordinary citizens to pass out almost instantaneously. If they had been the focus of this aura, they would have, without a doubt, died on the spot.

Haku’s ice blocks shattered into a thousand pieces after being hit by a tailed beast shockwave.

He was thrown back.

He tried raising his body to look at the figure slowly walking towards him but found himself unable to do even that.

The closer Naru got to him, the harder he found it to breathe.

Naru had let the hatred take over. That boy needed to pay. She would show no mercy, not against him who had hurt Sasuke. She did not even think of healing Sasuke first though, only thinking of killing the boy.

She snapped her fingers and a huge golden fireball formed above the boy.

Slowly it descended towards him. It took seconds before Haku could even feel the heat of the fireball approach, but once he did, he knew that he could never survive this attack.

He would die, without a doubt. And after that, Zabuza would die too.

Haku closed his eyes, giving up. He could not do anything anyway, there was no use to struggle anymore. Overwhelming power always won … and this was his fate. Perhaps, in a different life, he wouldn’t have needed to fight against the three Genin … but, alas, that was his fate.

He had angered someone he shouldn’t have, but so what? It was done while fighting for his dream, while fighting to protect Zabuza who had given him a reason to live, even if that was to be a tool for him.

Haku was fine with dying.

However, just as the fireball was about to hit him, a deep voice said: “Naruto wouldn’t want that … and you know that too, don’t you, sister?”

The fireball instantly disappeared and the pressure on everyone in town was lifted.

Naru reeled the hatred back in and looked at where the voice had come from.

“Sister, they will survive. Sasuke will too, if you start healing him now.” Naruto, or rather, Kurama said, looking at the nine-tailed fox girl in front of him. He had taken over the unconscious Naruto’s body and Naruto’s eyes had changed to become vertical slits.

Naru nodded as tears started falling down her face.

She slowly walked towards the dark-haired figure lying on the ground.

She sat down on her calves and put the bleeding boy’s head onto her lap.

She moved her hand to touch the unconscious boy’s forehead and gently stroked his hair. Meanwhile she slowly let her chakra flow through his body and forcefully ejected the needles.

Blood started flowing out of his wounds. She moved her nine tails to different places on his body and poured a nearly endless amount of chakra to the tips of her tails.

There, a soothing green glow emerged, and the healing chakra started slowly healing the wounds on Sasuke’s body. These were low-level healing techniques, but it nevertheless helped his current condition.

Slowly, his breathing started to even out and his chakra flow returned to normal as the last obvious wound was healed shut.

He had lost a lot of blood and it would take time and rest to recover.

Naru extended some of her tails towards Sakura’s body and did the same for her.

Kurama, who still controlled Naruto’s body, had already finished healing that one, as the mere presence of him inside of Naruto’s body drastically increased his ability to heal.

Haku watched this scene in bewilderment. He couldn’t understand how he was not dead. He had hurt them so much … for his own selfish dream no less … he was sure that he even killed Sasuke, but yet … the Golden Fox, that seemed like an angry goddess, had chosen to let him go.

“They’ll deal with you later. Same goes for your “precious person”.” Naru said to Haku without even averting her eyes from Sasuke’s face.

She continued gently stroking his head and covering him in her tails.

Nothing could get through them, they were like an impenetrable barrier protecting Sasuke’s body from anything that might want to harm him.

Zabuza and Kakashi had long stopped fighting. When that pressure had hit them, they were, just like Haku, unable to even move a finger.

Zabuza had understood that they would never be able to take Tazuna down, so he decided to just let it go. Even if that would spell trouble for him later, if he let Tazuna go now, he still had a chance at living.

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