Promises Kept
folder
Naruto AU/AR › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
19
Views:
1,353
Reviews:
34
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Naruto AU/AR › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
19
Views:
1,353
Reviews:
34
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Battle For The Bridge
A/N: So here it is the new version of the Battle for the Bridge. I decided to redo the fights mostly because even I thought that Naruto was a bit too powerful for this stage of the story. I hope you enjoy this new version as much if not more then the previous one.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Naruto races back to the bridge after finishing the two swordsmen that Gatou had sent after Tazuna’s family. The men had been easy to deal with and surrendered almost instantly once Naruto’s katana cut through theirs with no effort what so ever. “I still can’t believe how easy that was,” he tells Kyuubi. “I guess what Raven-niisan told me about bullies is true after all. They’re only tough as long as they have the advantage. Take that away from them and they really are nothing but cowards.”
“Don’t get cocky kit,” Kyuubi cautions him, “Gatou and his man may be nothing but a bunch of bullies but Haku and Zabuza aren’t. They won’t be so easily defeated so stay focused.”
“Hai,” he replies as they approach the bridge. The mist covering the area is so thick that he can barely see three inches in front of him. Closing his eyes he allows Kyuubi’s chakra to flow through his eyes enhancing his vision. Opening his eyes once again, his vision is still cloudy but he can now see well enough to know what’s going on. Sakura is standing in front of Tazuna, guarding him while Kakashi and Zabuza are fighting near them and Haku and Sasuke are battling near where he is. Haku has Sasuke trapped in some kind of Jutsu, which allows her to teleport almost instantly from one mirror to another while continually throwing her senbo at him. Almost any other time Naruto might have laughed at the Uchiha’s imitation of a pin cushion but right now even with his Sharingan the raven haired boy was on his last legs. “About damn time he figured out how to activate it,” Naruto thinks to himself, “Of course now he’s going to be an even bigger Teme then before.”
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Sasuke is panting hard as he struggles for breath. “Who is this guy?” the avenger asks himself. ‘Even with the Sharingan I can barely keep up with his speed.’ He barely even registers Haku’s next attack before closing his eyes and bracing himself for a hit that never comes. Opening his eyes he’s shocked to see Naruto standing in front of him with his back to Haku. “Bout time you showed up dobe,” he says right before he collapses from exhaustion.
Naruto catches Sasuke before the other boy falls while sensing Haku’s surprise at his arrival. “Thank you for not killing him,” he tells her as he picks his teammate up. “We can fight once I get him out of the way,” he tells her before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Sakura is looking around frantically trying to figure out what’s going on when she senses someone suddenly to her right. Moving swiftly she throws several shurikens at the new comer only to feel a gentle hand on her left shoulder. “Easy Sakura-chan,” a familiar voice tells her softly.
“Na…Naruto…?” she asks uncertainly until a gentle breeze clears the fog just enough for her to see the blond holding their unconscious teammate. “What happened to Sasuke-kun?” she asks as Naruto sets the other boy down gently before removing his coat and placing it under Sasuke’s head like a pillow.
“He exhausted his chakra,” Naruto tells her before creating five Shadow Clones. “Look after him while I finish what he started,” he says before handing her his first-aid pouch. The Shadow Clones take up defensive positions around them as he looks over to where Haku is waiting for him.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Haku is now standing in the middle of the Ice Mirrors as she waits for Naruto’s return. Her mind is clouded with so many conflicting thoughts and emotions that she never even senses him behind her until he places his hand on her shoulder. Spinning around quickly, she nearly gasps in shock as she notices his eyes for the first time. His red slitted eyes seem to see through her mask and peer into her very soul as if searching for something that she’s not even sure exists. “We don’t have to do this,” he tells her softly enough for her to hear him clearly but still too quietly for any of the others to overhear them.
“We are shinobi,” she tells him sadly as she turns to reenter the mirrors, “Our missions make us enemies and as such we must fight.”
“You don’t honestly believe that, do you?” he asks refusing to let her go just yet. “You know this isn’t right,” he says stalling their fight for as long as possible while he tries figuring out a way of ending this without having to fight her. “Gatou is an evil man who must be stopped,” he tells her, “We should be working to together to stop him, not fighting against each other.”
“Another time or another place I might have agreed with you,” she says sadly knowing that the longer they talk the harder it will be for her to fight him. “But for now we are enemies so please don’t make this harder then it has to be,” she nearly begs him fighting back the tears that threaten to fill her eyes.
Naruto closes his eyes as he fights back the twinge of sadness and pain he feels at the moment. “If that is how it must be then please forgive me, Haku-chan,” he tells her as he turns her around to face him. His fist collides with her face nearly shattering her mask and as she falls towards the ground the last thing she sees before her world goes dark is the single tear running down Naruto’s cheek as he cradles her gently in his arms.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
To say that Sakura is shocked by the sight of Naruto carrying the unconscious form of the fake Hunter-nin is an understatement but when he lays the girl beside Sasuke the pinked haired kunoichi is almost livid. In fact at the moment the only thing keeping her from killing the other girl and beating her blond teammate into submission is the fact that they were still in the middle of a battlefield. Naruto knows this, which is the reason that he squats between Haku and Sakura as he watches Jounin via for the upper hand.
The battle continues to escalate until it seems that the only way for either side to win would only be when the other one finally succumbs to chakra exhaustion and that was when it happened. At first the smells and sounds were too faint for even Naruto to pick up on but slowly they continued to grow until he was able to clearly make out the scents and heartbeats of fifty men, one of which he suspected was the man behind the whole mess to begin with. “Hey you two,” he calls out to both Jounin, “We’ve got company.”
Both men turn to see what the boy is talking about, their scan of the area is greeted by the by the sight of Gatou surrounded by forty-nine of his hired thugs. “Sharp kid,” the Mobster snickers as he steps towards the younger shinobi. “Pathetic really,” he says as he lifts the bottom of his cane to poke Haku only to have the cane cut cleanly in half by the sword now in front of his face.
“You will not touch her,” Naruto growls dangerously as he slowly stands, never once taking his sword off Gatou. “I’ll give you and your men one chance and one chance only to get out of here before I kill you. And if you ever come near the Land of Waves again your life is forfeit.”
Gatou just laughs as he steps back from the kid allowing his men to take up positions between him and the shinobi. “Kill them all,” he orders, “Starting with the blonde punk.” Kakashi and Zabuza exchange a glance before Gatou’s men move to act on his orders. In that moment they both know that their battle is over and that Gatou had intended to betray Zabuza all along. With a nod both men move as one towards the others to finish Team 7’s mission and exact Zabuza’s revenge.
Kakashi moves in front of Naruto preventing the boy from interfering as Zabuza tears his way through the main body of Gatou’s little army in his hunt for their leader. The man backs away in terror as he screams for his men to kill the Demon of the Mist as he slowly inches his way towards the edge of the unfinished bridge. Swords, knives, spears and spikes protrude from his back and sides as Zabuza cleaves his way through the thugs reducing their numbers drastically before finally reaching his target. Leaning on his sword for support he tears into the flesh of Gatou’s neck with his jagged teeth ripping open the man’s jugular.
Sakura gasps in horror as she covers her ears and closes her eyes in a vain attempt to shut out the images of death flooding her mind. Naruto sheaths his katana as he turns away from the carnage and death as he kneels beside Haku to try and wake her so she can say her goodbyes to Zabuza. He knows that the nuke-nin’s injuries are too severe for Sakura’s limited skills to heal and he doubts Haku has had any training using medical Ninjutsu.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
A few days later Naruto sits in a tree watching over a kneeling Haku as she prays over a grave with a large sword serving has its headstone. Naruto had convinced Haku to ask the Hokage if she could become a Konoha kunoichi and maybe see about receiving training to become a medic-nin. Haku agreed fairly easily although she did remind Naruto that she had no actual training in the use of Medical Ninjutsu.
Since Zabuza’s death she has been withdrawn, isolating herself from the others. Given their previous interactions, Naruto understood and respected her wish to be left alone though he always remained nearby if she needed him. ‘Just like she was there for me…’
The last few nights found Naruto waking up in a cold sweat; the sights and sounds of his first kills haunt his dreams. Though he knew that being a shinobi meant that sooner or later he would have to kill during his missions that knowledge provided him no comfort, nor did it hold the nightmares at bay. Each night he awoke to find Haku already at his side, awoken from her own nightmares, holding him in her arms and each night they would both cry themselves back to sleep.
***** FLASHBACK*****
Gatou’s remaining men were furious at having their meal ticket killed right in front of them. They moved towards the group of tired, weary and mourning shinobi with their weapons ready as a mob mentality envelopes them casting all logical reason out the window. “You killed our boss,” one of them snarls, “Now who’s going to pay us?”
“Let’s just kill them and raid the village,” another replies the others shout their agreements.
“Get lost,” Naruto tells them as he turns to face them while drawing his katana. “I’m in no mood for your bullshit.” His heart had been slowly breaking since Haku woke up just in time to catch Zabuza before the nuke-nin could fall to the ground. Now she held her dead teacher and “father” in her arms as her tears mix with the blood covering the former Kiri Swordsman. ‘She loved him as much as I do Raven-niisan and if I were to lose him…’
The mob ignores him as they continue to advance on them. Looking back at his friends he quickly realizes that none of them are in any condition to be of any use at the moment. Sasuke has only just now woken up making him too weak to fight for another day or two. Sakura was still too scared and too weak to fight, Haku was too consumed with grief and Kakashi was too exhausted. Growling to himself he assumes as fighting stance preparing to end this fight quickly.
Standing between his team and his targets Naruto focuses on the chakra in his katana as he raises the blade straight up over his head. Channeling his intentions into his chakra and then into his weapon before the sword began to pulse signaling its readiness for the attack. The blade of the katana is soon bursts into flame the moment before Naruto brings it straight down towards the ground. “Flaming Spiral Attack,” he calls out as a massive column of fire erupts from the ground, completely consuming the remaining thugs burning them alive until all that remained were their ashes.
***** End FLASHBACK*****
“It’s time to go,” a voice to his left calls to both him and Haku. Naruto looks over to see Sakura fidgeting from the path leading back towards the bridge. “The others are waiting for us,” she tells them before either move to join her. They meet up with the others and Naruto and Haku are both surprised to find that the entire village turned out to see them off. After saying their goodbyes they turn to leaveand begin making their way back towards Konoha. Without Tazuna or the threat of attack they are now able to move at a normal shinobi pace and know they'll be back in their village in time for lunch the next day.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
A/N: I hope you've all enjoyed the story thus far. I apologize for the rewrite but as I've said I didn't like the flow nor how powerful I had made Naruto. As far as the attack he used goes it will be explained in the next chapter. Well the Land of Waves Arch is now offically finished and the Chunnin Exams are set to begin soon. As always please remember to R&R and I'll see you all next time.
Later
~Raven~
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Naruto races back to the bridge after finishing the two swordsmen that Gatou had sent after Tazuna’s family. The men had been easy to deal with and surrendered almost instantly once Naruto’s katana cut through theirs with no effort what so ever. “I still can’t believe how easy that was,” he tells Kyuubi. “I guess what Raven-niisan told me about bullies is true after all. They’re only tough as long as they have the advantage. Take that away from them and they really are nothing but cowards.”
“Don’t get cocky kit,” Kyuubi cautions him, “Gatou and his man may be nothing but a bunch of bullies but Haku and Zabuza aren’t. They won’t be so easily defeated so stay focused.”
“Hai,” he replies as they approach the bridge. The mist covering the area is so thick that he can barely see three inches in front of him. Closing his eyes he allows Kyuubi’s chakra to flow through his eyes enhancing his vision. Opening his eyes once again, his vision is still cloudy but he can now see well enough to know what’s going on. Sakura is standing in front of Tazuna, guarding him while Kakashi and Zabuza are fighting near them and Haku and Sasuke are battling near where he is. Haku has Sasuke trapped in some kind of Jutsu, which allows her to teleport almost instantly from one mirror to another while continually throwing her senbo at him. Almost any other time Naruto might have laughed at the Uchiha’s imitation of a pin cushion but right now even with his Sharingan the raven haired boy was on his last legs. “About damn time he figured out how to activate it,” Naruto thinks to himself, “Of course now he’s going to be an even bigger Teme then before.”
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Sasuke is panting hard as he struggles for breath. “Who is this guy?” the avenger asks himself. ‘Even with the Sharingan I can barely keep up with his speed.’ He barely even registers Haku’s next attack before closing his eyes and bracing himself for a hit that never comes. Opening his eyes he’s shocked to see Naruto standing in front of him with his back to Haku. “Bout time you showed up dobe,” he says right before he collapses from exhaustion.
Naruto catches Sasuke before the other boy falls while sensing Haku’s surprise at his arrival. “Thank you for not killing him,” he tells her as he picks his teammate up. “We can fight once I get him out of the way,” he tells her before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Sakura is looking around frantically trying to figure out what’s going on when she senses someone suddenly to her right. Moving swiftly she throws several shurikens at the new comer only to feel a gentle hand on her left shoulder. “Easy Sakura-chan,” a familiar voice tells her softly.
“Na…Naruto…?” she asks uncertainly until a gentle breeze clears the fog just enough for her to see the blond holding their unconscious teammate. “What happened to Sasuke-kun?” she asks as Naruto sets the other boy down gently before removing his coat and placing it under Sasuke’s head like a pillow.
“He exhausted his chakra,” Naruto tells her before creating five Shadow Clones. “Look after him while I finish what he started,” he says before handing her his first-aid pouch. The Shadow Clones take up defensive positions around them as he looks over to where Haku is waiting for him.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
Haku is now standing in the middle of the Ice Mirrors as she waits for Naruto’s return. Her mind is clouded with so many conflicting thoughts and emotions that she never even senses him behind her until he places his hand on her shoulder. Spinning around quickly, she nearly gasps in shock as she notices his eyes for the first time. His red slitted eyes seem to see through her mask and peer into her very soul as if searching for something that she’s not even sure exists. “We don’t have to do this,” he tells her softly enough for her to hear him clearly but still too quietly for any of the others to overhear them.
“We are shinobi,” she tells him sadly as she turns to reenter the mirrors, “Our missions make us enemies and as such we must fight.”
“You don’t honestly believe that, do you?” he asks refusing to let her go just yet. “You know this isn’t right,” he says stalling their fight for as long as possible while he tries figuring out a way of ending this without having to fight her. “Gatou is an evil man who must be stopped,” he tells her, “We should be working to together to stop him, not fighting against each other.”
“Another time or another place I might have agreed with you,” she says sadly knowing that the longer they talk the harder it will be for her to fight him. “But for now we are enemies so please don’t make this harder then it has to be,” she nearly begs him fighting back the tears that threaten to fill her eyes.
Naruto closes his eyes as he fights back the twinge of sadness and pain he feels at the moment. “If that is how it must be then please forgive me, Haku-chan,” he tells her as he turns her around to face him. His fist collides with her face nearly shattering her mask and as she falls towards the ground the last thing she sees before her world goes dark is the single tear running down Naruto’s cheek as he cradles her gently in his arms.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
To say that Sakura is shocked by the sight of Naruto carrying the unconscious form of the fake Hunter-nin is an understatement but when he lays the girl beside Sasuke the pinked haired kunoichi is almost livid. In fact at the moment the only thing keeping her from killing the other girl and beating her blond teammate into submission is the fact that they were still in the middle of a battlefield. Naruto knows this, which is the reason that he squats between Haku and Sakura as he watches Jounin via for the upper hand.
The battle continues to escalate until it seems that the only way for either side to win would only be when the other one finally succumbs to chakra exhaustion and that was when it happened. At first the smells and sounds were too faint for even Naruto to pick up on but slowly they continued to grow until he was able to clearly make out the scents and heartbeats of fifty men, one of which he suspected was the man behind the whole mess to begin with. “Hey you two,” he calls out to both Jounin, “We’ve got company.”
Both men turn to see what the boy is talking about, their scan of the area is greeted by the by the sight of Gatou surrounded by forty-nine of his hired thugs. “Sharp kid,” the Mobster snickers as he steps towards the younger shinobi. “Pathetic really,” he says as he lifts the bottom of his cane to poke Haku only to have the cane cut cleanly in half by the sword now in front of his face.
“You will not touch her,” Naruto growls dangerously as he slowly stands, never once taking his sword off Gatou. “I’ll give you and your men one chance and one chance only to get out of here before I kill you. And if you ever come near the Land of Waves again your life is forfeit.”
Gatou just laughs as he steps back from the kid allowing his men to take up positions between him and the shinobi. “Kill them all,” he orders, “Starting with the blonde punk.” Kakashi and Zabuza exchange a glance before Gatou’s men move to act on his orders. In that moment they both know that their battle is over and that Gatou had intended to betray Zabuza all along. With a nod both men move as one towards the others to finish Team 7’s mission and exact Zabuza’s revenge.
Kakashi moves in front of Naruto preventing the boy from interfering as Zabuza tears his way through the main body of Gatou’s little army in his hunt for their leader. The man backs away in terror as he screams for his men to kill the Demon of the Mist as he slowly inches his way towards the edge of the unfinished bridge. Swords, knives, spears and spikes protrude from his back and sides as Zabuza cleaves his way through the thugs reducing their numbers drastically before finally reaching his target. Leaning on his sword for support he tears into the flesh of Gatou’s neck with his jagged teeth ripping open the man’s jugular.
Sakura gasps in horror as she covers her ears and closes her eyes in a vain attempt to shut out the images of death flooding her mind. Naruto sheaths his katana as he turns away from the carnage and death as he kneels beside Haku to try and wake her so she can say her goodbyes to Zabuza. He knows that the nuke-nin’s injuries are too severe for Sakura’s limited skills to heal and he doubts Haku has had any training using medical Ninjutsu.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
A few days later Naruto sits in a tree watching over a kneeling Haku as she prays over a grave with a large sword serving has its headstone. Naruto had convinced Haku to ask the Hokage if she could become a Konoha kunoichi and maybe see about receiving training to become a medic-nin. Haku agreed fairly easily although she did remind Naruto that she had no actual training in the use of Medical Ninjutsu.
Since Zabuza’s death she has been withdrawn, isolating herself from the others. Given their previous interactions, Naruto understood and respected her wish to be left alone though he always remained nearby if she needed him. ‘Just like she was there for me…’
The last few nights found Naruto waking up in a cold sweat; the sights and sounds of his first kills haunt his dreams. Though he knew that being a shinobi meant that sooner or later he would have to kill during his missions that knowledge provided him no comfort, nor did it hold the nightmares at bay. Each night he awoke to find Haku already at his side, awoken from her own nightmares, holding him in her arms and each night they would both cry themselves back to sleep.
***** FLASHBACK*****
Gatou’s remaining men were furious at having their meal ticket killed right in front of them. They moved towards the group of tired, weary and mourning shinobi with their weapons ready as a mob mentality envelopes them casting all logical reason out the window. “You killed our boss,” one of them snarls, “Now who’s going to pay us?”
“Let’s just kill them and raid the village,” another replies the others shout their agreements.
“Get lost,” Naruto tells them as he turns to face them while drawing his katana. “I’m in no mood for your bullshit.” His heart had been slowly breaking since Haku woke up just in time to catch Zabuza before the nuke-nin could fall to the ground. Now she held her dead teacher and “father” in her arms as her tears mix with the blood covering the former Kiri Swordsman. ‘She loved him as much as I do Raven-niisan and if I were to lose him…’
The mob ignores him as they continue to advance on them. Looking back at his friends he quickly realizes that none of them are in any condition to be of any use at the moment. Sasuke has only just now woken up making him too weak to fight for another day or two. Sakura was still too scared and too weak to fight, Haku was too consumed with grief and Kakashi was too exhausted. Growling to himself he assumes as fighting stance preparing to end this fight quickly.
Standing between his team and his targets Naruto focuses on the chakra in his katana as he raises the blade straight up over his head. Channeling his intentions into his chakra and then into his weapon before the sword began to pulse signaling its readiness for the attack. The blade of the katana is soon bursts into flame the moment before Naruto brings it straight down towards the ground. “Flaming Spiral Attack,” he calls out as a massive column of fire erupts from the ground, completely consuming the remaining thugs burning them alive until all that remained were their ashes.
***** End FLASHBACK*****
“It’s time to go,” a voice to his left calls to both him and Haku. Naruto looks over to see Sakura fidgeting from the path leading back towards the bridge. “The others are waiting for us,” she tells them before either move to join her. They meet up with the others and Naruto and Haku are both surprised to find that the entire village turned out to see them off. After saying their goodbyes they turn to leaveand begin making their way back towards Konoha. Without Tazuna or the threat of attack they are now able to move at a normal shinobi pace and know they'll be back in their village in time for lunch the next day.
=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=
A/N: I hope you've all enjoyed the story thus far. I apologize for the rewrite but as I've said I didn't like the flow nor how powerful I had made Naruto. As far as the attack he used goes it will be explained in the next chapter. Well the Land of Waves Arch is now offically finished and the Chunnin Exams are set to begin soon. As always please remember to R&R and I'll see you all next time.
Later
~Raven~