ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

The soothing wave p.2

(Long chapter)

Zabuza stumbled out of the path he had created, face split in a manic grin as blood dripped from his bandaged mouth. Naruto held his gaze as he settled into his usual stance, body tensed and ready. The man had been through worse, judging by the torn bandages, milk-patterned trousers and bleeding arms and legs.

"Impressive!" Zabuza praised as he laughed gleefully, "You actually forced me back, with your own strength no less! Heh, I thought only Kisame could do that to me. You boy, are the second person to actually send me flying while in kenjutsu combat!"

The man let his blood drip onto Kubikiribōchō — and to everyone's amazement, including Naruto's — the blade actually repaired itself from the damage it had sustained from Naruto's final blow. That was the special quality of this blade — it absorbs the iron in the blood to repair itself.

A truly vicious blade, fit for a bloodthirsty man.

The man held his blade up in his usual stance, the smirk behind his bloodied bandaged mask was frighteningly feral.

"Now," Zabuza said, "It's time I get even more serious than last time."

With that he charged forward, Naruto meeting him halfway parrying his heavier blows.

Naruto grunted as he parried another strike at his heart, planting his foot on the ground so that he could balance himself to bring his katana up to block at slash aimed at his neck, and the one at his groin, his knee, his liver — the strikes were coming faster than before, and the mist wasn't helping either as Zabuza kept disappearing into it, reappearing seconds later aiming at another one of his exposed areas.

Then, the unexpected happened.

As he brought his blade down to parry another strike, Naruto wasn't prepared in the slightest when Zabuza slightly angled his huge cleaver in an odd angle, before bringing it up in a vicious swipe that his katana should've easily blocked — should've being the key word.

Only that it didn't, as the blade shattered at the hilt, right before his eyes that he was sure was filled with dumbfounded surprise.

Naruto was shocked that it had ever been possible — there was a chance, but it was slim at best, that his katana would be shattered. He had expected it, but not this easy!

'Just what was Kubikiribōchō made of?!' Naruto thought in frustration as he sealed his broken sword in one of the storage seals on his wrist.

"I see that you're shocked that your sword had shattered against mine, no matter how illogical it seemed, right?" Zabuza said, chuckling as he turned to regard the young boy who had more than given him a good fight. "I've fought my fair share of katanas from Tetsu no Kuni — masterful works all of them, but despite their perfection there was always a similar fault in every one of them —"

Zabuza held up his sword, showing the slight incision where his sword had made contact with Naruto's katana. Already the man's blood was fixing the damage.

"— at a certain angle, when you use just enough chakra to force its composition to break just a little, a sharp and strong blow would suffice to completely shatter it at the hilt — that's the only weakness of those troublesome blades." Zabuza explained his reasoning with what seemed like an annoyed undertone mixed in reverence for the master craftsmen of the Land of Samurai.

Naruto shook his head in amazement, drawing two kunai as he settled into what seemed like a defensive stance.

"As expected from one of the Seven," Naruto began, "Looks like I'll have to get serious as well — or I might just get killed."