Son of the Sannin(Back)

Senju Twins Rescue Part IV

Zabuza never thought that, during his stay in the Land of Fire, he'd run into and fight a fellow native of the Land of Water. The fact that he was from a clan believed to be extinct –albeit, for once, not due to the infamous Bloodline Purges– only added to his surprise, which he managed to keep carefully hidden thanks to his mental training.

But then again, if six years ago somebody told him that he'd be working for Konoha, he'd laugh in that person's face. Fate is indeed a fickle mistress.

"Let me guess, is that Orochimaru forcing you to work for him?" Zabuza asked.

Kimimaro visibly frowned, offended at such suggestion. "I serve Orochimaru-sama willingly. He gave my life a purpose, and I work for him in order to repay him. Unlike you, I'm not a slave."

The fact that he sounded a lot like Haku made Zabuza feel oddly uncomfortable.

"I'm not a slave either. This is just a temp job," Zabuza replied, trying to save face.

Kimimaro smirked a little, clearly amused. "Sure. Keep telling yourself that. Anyway, not that it's going to matter, given that you're going to meet your end here."

This time, it was Zabuza who smirked. "Do you really think that you can take on a Swordsman of the Hidden Mist, brat? You're strong, but you're way over your head."

"If that's the case, then let's check which one of the two is actually wrong," Kimimaro replied, as bone blades started to grow over several parts of his body. "Dance of the Willow!"

The Kaguya charged at Zabuza, who raised his sword defensively. Upon reaching hand to hand combat, Kimimaro launched an onslaught of swipes with his bone blades, as well as the occasional punch and kick, forcing Zabuza into the defensive. Still, that didn't last long, since Zabuza managed to jump back a bit, putting enough distance between himself and Kimimaro's attack, but still close enough for his Executioner's Blade to reach the white haired ninja.

Now, it was Kimimaro on the defensive as he parried and dodged Zabuza's vicious attacks. Despite the sword looked –and was– rather heavy, on Zabuza's hand it appeared as if it was made of light plastic. Still, the last Kaguya could feel all the weight of the massive sword whenever the parried one of its brutal blows.

"Still think you measure up to me?" Zabuza cockily asked, as he readied another sword slam.

This time, instead of parrying, Kimimaro gracefully moved sideways, and taking advantage of Zabuza's precarious position, he dashed towards him and sunk one of his bone blades on Zabuza's side. His makeshift weapon managed to pierce the Jonin's flak jacket as if it was made of wet paper.

"I think I'm way better than you," Kimimaro retorted, violently pulling out the blade from Zabuza's flesh.

But much to his shock, blood didn't come out of Zabuza's grievous wound, but water. Zabuza then smirked under his mask, before he turned into a puddle of water.

"A clone...?" Kimimaro lamely asked. "I've been fighting a clone the whole time?"

"Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu!"

A massive dragon-shaped water construct blocked the sun above the Oto ninja. It let out a distorted roar, before coming down at him. Kimimaro expertly jumped backwards dodging the lunge, but the dragon then exploded into a shapeless torrent of water rushing at him. Kimimaro continued running and dodging the water as good as he could..

A loud whirring sound alerted Kimimaro of the giant spinning sword flying at him like a deadly disc. At that speed, blocking it would be suicide, so he opted for dodging it. The blade passed besides him harmlessly, but that moment, Zabuza suddenly burst out of the water torrent, grabbed his sword and viciously assaulted Kimimaro.