𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 | 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐨 [HEAVY EDITING]

𝟏𝟓 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐭: 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐰𝐨

A gasp of relief escapes me at the sight of my loud friend.

"Naruto Uzumaki is finally here!" Naruto calls, grinning.

"Just in time, too," I breathe, my hand patting my chest to soothe my beating heart. But couldn't you have made a sneak attack, or something...?

"You know how in stories where the hero usually shows up at the last minute and then kicks butt?" he calls. "Well, that's what I'm gonna do, right now! Believe it!" Chuckling, Naruto crosses two fingers from each of his hands against the other. "All right, you're history!"

My relief immediately flips into concern when Zabuza, from where he faces off against Kakashi-sensei, suddenly whips several shuriken at Naruto.

"Get out of the way, Naruto!" our Sensei yells at him, but he's rooted to the spot. My body instinctively tries to move to protect him, but I'm stuck inside the ice dome, unable to get out, so I remain at Sasuke's side, b-but then Haku cancels them out with his senbon...?

"Hey, what are you doing, Naruto?!" Sakura shrieks.

"This is a battle, not a talent show!" Kakashi-sensei snaps. "Don't let your opponent see your Jutsu!" Even from where Sasuke and I are, we can hear Naruto's whimper. "The Shinobi's art is deception— always keep the enemy guessing! Even when executing a single Jutsu, one must distract an opponent's attention, catch them off-balance, and out-maneuver them! You just turned yourself into a human target when you entered the battle like that!"

"Argh, I'm sorry!" Naruto exclaims, throwing his hands on top of his head. "I was just trying to rescue everybody!!"

"And it's appreciated, but Naruto, be more careful!" I call, anxious.

"I know already!" he whines at me.

"Haku! What's the big idea?" Zabuza barks. I'm nodding to myself – uh, yeah! Why the heck did he just save him?!

"Zabuza, leave this boy to me." I follow the direction of Haku's masked gaze, where it's been trained on Naruto. "Please let me fight this battle my way."

"... so you want me to leave this to you, huh?" Zabuza chuckles. "Is that it, Haku?" He doesn't respond; Zabuza scoffs. "As usual, you're too soft."

"Forgive me," Haku finally says.

Carefully and quietly, I pull the last of the senbon needles out from Sasuke's middle back and help him onto a knee. Soft? My thoughts repeat. Looking down my teammate, something clicks – when I'd been pulling out Haku's weapons, every single one of them had been strategically placed and volleyed at him, and they hadn't hit him where it really hurts, in his vitals. They'd all been soft spots.

So far, at least.

"I'm warning you!" Naruto says, pointing at Haku. "One way or another, I'm gonna rip that mask off you and take you apart! That mask, your bogus story – you were with Zabuza all along! D'you think you can get away with a stunt like that?!"