The Last Rose (Naruto Fanfic)

Sharingan Warrior

"You're finished!"

"All right!" Naruto yells in excitement, but Sora is much more cautious. Was it really that easy? Sure, their sensei might be strong, but he had told them how much of a difficult opponent Zabuza would be. How was it possible that he had already beat him before a proper fight had even begun?

Zabuza begins to chuckle. "Finished..." Kakashi narrowed his eyes, tightening his grip on the Kunai as Zabuza continued. "You really don't get it, do you? Your technique is nothing more than a crass imitation. I'll never be defeated by a mere copy cat like you."

He laughs again. "You are full of surprises though. You've already copied my water clone jutsu while you made your little speech. Very skillfully executed. You made your clone say those words to draw my attention while you hid in the mist, waiting for my next move. Nice try."

Another Zabuza appears behind Kakashi and the one in front of him explodes into water, soaking him.

"Hey that ones a clone too!" Naruto yells in shock and Kakashi spins around, just barely missing the swing of Zabuza's sword. But Zabuza is already thinking one move ahead, and he plants his sword into the ground, pushing himself off it and landing a kick right on Kakashi's side, sending him flying several feet backwards and into the water.

Panic swirls in Sora's chest and she takes a step backward, something banging against her wrist. She looks down, right at the bracelet that Wing had given them.

"He's got great physical skills too." Sasuke says through gritted teeth, looking just as shaken up as the rest of them. They watch as Kakashi resurfaces from the water, Zabuza looking gleeful right behind him.

"Water Prison Jutsu!" And just like that, Kakashi is trapped in a sphere of water, with no way out. The genin were on their own.

"I'll finish you off later." Zabuza drawls, but he keeps one hand inside the water bubble. "But first, your little friends will have to be eliminated." He uses his other hand to make a hand sign and create another water clone of himself. He chuckled lowly.

"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja? When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't faze you, then you may be called a ninja. When you've become so deadly your profile is entered in my Bingo Book then you may have earned the title, Ninja." Sora tenses as his clone lifts his fingers to his lips. "But to call upstarts like you ninja, is a joke."

The fog closes in on them again, blocking the rest of Sora's team and Tazuna from her view. She looks around wildly, only just now realizing that the earlier scuffle had left them all separated from each other, and from Tazuna. Their client. This was bad.

The fog shifts slightly, and there's a loud thud and a grunt.

"See? You're just brats!"

"Naruto!" Sakura cries and Sora races to the sound of their voices, then freezes at Kakashi's voice.

"Listen!" He commands, but there is real fear in his voice. "Get the bridge builder and run! You can't win this fight! He's using all his power to keep me in this prison, so he can only fight you with his clone. But the clone can't get far from his real body. If you get away from him, he can't follow. Now run!"

Hearing the fear in their sensei's voice only makes Sora more alarmed. Even though his words seem logical, they actually aren't. He forgets that Zabuza's main target was Tazuna, not him. He wouldn't hesitate to dispose of Kakashi and then get to them, if that's what it would take to get to Tazuna.

No. Running away wasn't an option.

Of course, there's also the fact that she didn't want to just leave Kakashi there. He was starting to grow on her. So that really only left one option.