Chapitre 16: Demon and Traitor
*3 days later*
Team 7 and Tazuna were sitting in a boat with a rower who had just turned off a motor.
"From here on out, we'll have to row. The mist may hide us from view, but the sound from the engine will draw attention." The rower explained.
They moved for a little bit before the bridge finally came into view.
'Wow.' She thought.
This was the first time she had ever seen a bridge, in both lives.
This unfinished bridge stood out of the water by roughly 100 feet, [30.5 m] and likely the same length across. From what she could see from their distance from the shore, she guessed that it was already about 500-600 ft [150-180m] long.
'We got on the boat about an hour ago, meaning this bridge, when finished, will stretch about 2.5-3 miles [4.5 kilometers]. That will make it the second largest bridge in the world, just behind the Chimamire [Bloody] Bridge in Kiri.' She thought.
"How long have you worked on this?" Sasuke asked.
"We've been working on this for about half a decade now."
"HALF A DE-" Naruto started before placing a hand over his mouth, hoping to stop his suddenly loud voice. "Half a decade?! How have you done only this much?"
"Gato." He told, as if that would answer everything.
'In a way, it does.'
Since they aren't connected to land and need to use ships, they have to sneak the materials pass Gato, scrounge up enough money for said material, all the while fearing that they may be killed.
"Why did you apply for a mission now? Were you somehow able to get most of the material you needed?" Suki asked.
"We've had the materials for the past month, but Gato has hired bandits and the occasional ninja to force people helping with the bridge to either stop or face either death or a fate worse than death." Tazuna explained.
"Worse than death?" Naruto muttered.
"They may make an example to the village through said person's family. Kill them, sell them...use them. Anything that could break a man or woman."
At that, all but Kakashi gripped their fists in anger, shock, or disbelief.
"How does he get away with that?!"
"Because no one can do anything about it. As I've said, Gato practically owns this village through his marine transport business. He controls what comes in and what goes out."
"We're about to shore." The rower told.
They stayed in silence and continued walking.
The trio of Team 7 unknowingly shared a thought.
'We will get rid of Gato.'
-----------------------------------
They were walking down a path through some woods before a few sensed something.
Naruto quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it, hearing a thunk as it sunk into a tree.
Everyone got on guard before Suki walked over and found what she feared to be true.
'A snow hare. The only way for it to still have its white coat is if it was raised indoors.' Suki thought.
"Seriously brat!? Don't give me a heart attack over a rabbit!" Tazuna exclaimed.
Suki took that moment to activate her eyes, just to see movement a distance away from them in the trees.
"Get down!/Drop!" Kakashi and Suki yelled out.
Naruto grabbed Tazuna and dragged him to the ground while everyone else crouched as low as they could.
Just overhead, a large sword spun through the air and embedded itself inside a tree.
No later than that, did someone land on the sword.
She quickly studied the newcomer.
The person was a tall male with short, spikey hair almost like Naruto's, wore no shirt with only something that looked to hold his sword on his back, cowprinted armguards, gray pants, and cowprinted shoes.
She couldn't see his face but knew he had white bandages from his chin to his nose.
'Zabuza.' She thought.
"Well, well. If it isn't Zabuza Momochi." Kakashi greeted.
Suki released her sword from her seal, gripping it in her right hand.
"Don't interfere." Kakashi told. "He's on a different level from the earlier opponents."
'No kidding. Those earlier two were low-mid Chunin at best. From the little I gathered from the bingo book, he's about high Jounin-low Anbu level when the coup attempt happened. If the three of us had to fight him, I would need to enter Seimon at the minimum.' She thought. 'It's been about 2-3 weeks since they said not to use it for a month.'
"This fight may be tough. I'll have to use it." He muttered before placing a hand on his headband.
"Kakashi of the Sharingan." Zabuza then looked towards Suki. "And an Uchiha with their Sharingan as well." He then turned his attention back to Kakashi. "If you wouldn't mind, would you hand over the bridge builder?"
"Battle Manji Formation."
The three of them quickly surrounded Tazuna similar to a triangle. Suki in the front, Sasuke to her right, and Naruto on her left.
Kakashi pulled up his headband, revealing a three tomoed sharingan.
"Ah, there it is. Kakashi of the Sharingan, who has a reputation of copying over 1000 ninjutsu."
That number surprised Naruto and Sasuke, while Suki had a slight gleam in her eyes at that information.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, seeing how we were hired to protect him."
"Then I'll have to kill you first then."
Zabuza grabbed his blade before vanishing and reappearing over the lake.
She watched him perform a hand sign and hold another in the air.
As he did that, a thick mist appeared and started getting thicker.
Before he disappeared, he commented, "The best of the ninja arts, Kirigakure Jutsu."
They tensed up.
'Eight points...' His voice echoed from every direction. 'Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidney heart.'
He spoke slowly. 'Now, which vulnerable spot should I choose?'
A few seconds passed before a heavy weight appeared in the air.
Sasuke and Naruto tensed and they started to tremble just slightly.
Suki narrowed her eyes before forcing her chakra out as well, releasing her own pressure.
Both pressures, were killing intent. People can not fake killing intent, since it is literally the intent to kill. Shinobi can release chakra alongside it to increase its feeling.
While most would hesitate after feeling such feeling from Zabuza himself, there is one thing that Suki was finally glad about how her sharingan unlocked.
His killing intent is nothing compared to what she felt from the Kyuubi. Because she unlocked it in that moment, the feeling was memorized for years. Since she was quite young and new to the world, she had nightmares for years of it, forcing her to continue memorizing the feeling until she managed to push it back into her mind.
The pressure the other two were under lessened but didn't disappear.
Kakashi glanced at her before focusing on his entire team. "Don't worry. I will not let any of my comrades die."
Suddenly, Suki barely felt his presence before quickly turning her head. She started to move her hand, only for Zabuza to slam a foot into her side, sending her away.
"Suki!" Three voices exclaimed.
She rolled before finding herself heading towards the water. She quickly applied chakra all over her body since she figured that she wouldn't stop rolling by the time she reached it.
She came to a stop and focused the chakra to her knees and feet.
She looked up, just to see Kakashi get cut in half. She would have been shocked, if not for the water droplets she could make out.
'There goes learning the water clone technique at the moment.' She thought.
She stood up and prepared to head back, but had to jump out of the way as the water where she stood had erupted as if something struck it.
"Nice reflexes kid." She heard.
She spun around and saw a man with dark green hair down to the base of his neck, a sleeveless dark blue uniform with two long strips of gray from the sides of his neck down to his black ninja boots. Alongside that, he wore black armguards and had a small handle hooked on his side. He also wore a Kiri headband.
"However, that won't help you." He then held three senbons in between his fingers on each hand.
He threw three from his left hand towards her.
Since her sharingan is still active, they seemed to move sluggishly towards her. She moved out of the way, spotting something about the senbons.
'There's something on them. It's extremely likely that they are poisonous. Best not to get struck.'
All the while, she made sure to watch him, which turned out to be the right choice, since he had thrown the other three and had started forming signs.
She spun her sword, deflecting them away from her and watched as he finished whatever he was doing and took in air.
"Water Style: Gunshot!" He exclaimed before shooting a ball of water at her at a quick speed.
"Fire Style: Fireball!" She shot out a ball of fire.
They collided, creating a lot of steam that joined the mist, making it incredibly hard to see.
Suki stayed in her stance, waiting for any kind of indication.
A few seconds ticked by before she heard several things flying towards her.
Using her instincts and Sharingan, she managed to quickly react, dodge, and deflect said objects.
She then heard a sound that she had actually only heard in one life.
And that was not this one.
*pssshhew*
She swung the Wakizashi upwards to block something, only to have her eyes widen.
She forced chakra through the bottom of her feet, sending her flying backwards.
"Good blade you've got there." The man called out. "Most blades are destroyed when they met mine."
She looked at the blade.
The middle of the blade had a large chip with several cracks arcing outwards from the spot.
She returned it to the seal before drawing the tanto she kept on her.
The steam had almost dissipated completely, giving her view of her opponent.
He looked the same since they had yet to hit each other, except he now held the handle that was on his waist in his right hand. Except now, from the handle, emitted a yellow blade.
'I swear I've seen that blade before.' She couldn't help but think.
"But know this, now that I've drawn this blade, I am now invincible!" He exclaimed.
She formed the needed signs before creating three additional versions of herself.
"You know what to do." She commented, with the clones nodding.
The really good thing about clones, as long as you come up with a plan before summoning them, they already know the plan. The tricky part is after they are summon. If you think of something after, only you know that thought, not the clones.
A better way of thinking about it is that they know everything about you up until they are summoned. From there, they had thoughts of their own that more times then not are similar to the creator's thoughts.
One clone made their hands become engulfed in fire, while the other two started forming hand signs.
Suki looked down at the tanto. "No time like the present."
She forced her chakra through the blade. As it traveled through it, the blade started getting hotter until it glowed a dim orange.
The clone that set its hands on fire charged forward.
It got close to him before he spun the blade in a circle, leaving lightning hanging in the air in the shape of a circle.
Since the clone charged, it couldn't stop and impacted it, getting electrocuted.
Suki watched as the clone didn't dispel at first before he stabbed the blade into the clone's head.
'He can leave traces of lightning chakra hanging in the air. Since he gains nothing form keeping me alive, those can likely only paralyze the target. However,' She rubbed the side of her head. 'That blade pierced the chakra the clone moved to block the strike easily.'
"Lightning Style: Orbs!" The two clones exclaimed.
Several orbs of lightning started appearing beside, in front, above, and behind them. When they stopped appearing, there were a good 30 of them while the clones huffed.
The orbs then started charging straight at him.
He dodged some but she was more interested in the ones he hit with the sword.
'He is actually cutting through them.' She thought in slight shock.
There's a reason people don't just swing swords into jutsus that can be considered strong, with a few exceptions. If you were to swing a sword into a lightning jutsu, it would just transfer into the sword then into the user.
However, this person's sword is cutting through chakra itself. Something that is considered largely impossible without using chakra itself.
The two clones dispelled, having done what they needed to.
"See? Not a single scratch." He smirked confidently.
She formed hand signs again.
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
Instead of shooting the air at him, she shot it into the water in front of her, causing a large amount of water to shoot into the air, blocking her opponent's view of her.
When it fell back down, the man saw a lightning bolt heading straight for him.
He swung the blade and cut it in half.
"Alright, as fun as it is to see you try your best and still fail, Zabuza and I have a target to kill." He sighed.
He took a step.
An explosion occurred, sending him flying back with a slash mark on his chest.
"What!?"
From the spot of the explosion, Suki could be seen with her orange blade outstretched like she had slashed someone.
"I didn't recognize it at first, but now I know who you are." She stared at him.
"You are Aoi Rokushō, a missing nin from Konohagakure. Wanted for manipulation of fellow leaf shinobi, village secrets..." She then stared at the blade, recognizing it for the threat it is.
"And for stealing the Raijin no Ken, the lightning sword belonging to Tobirama Senju, the Nidaime Hokage."
----------------------------------------
First, points I feel I need to clarify.
Suki is fighting Aoi incredibly well for a reason that will be addressed in the future.
Suki got separated from the group, not to avoid changing "canon" but because Zabuza and Aoi planned to pick them off and separate them from each other to get rid of them faster.
Yes, the blade from her father is now damaged.
Anything I didn't address, comment and let me know.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Shane_The_Reader
Shane_The_Reader A little warning, next week's chapter may come out late due to exams. Obviously, I'll try my best to have it finished before next week.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone