Zabuza was not very pleased.
He had been expecting the girl to show up when he revealed himself on the bridge, but instead found that she just happened to be separated from the rest of her team for the moment, and instead he was to deal with the wife of the current Hokage.
Not to be disrespectful, but the matchup was heavily in his favour simply due to the fact that he was a kenjutsu user who possessed one of the greatest swords on the elemental nations whilst she was a taijutsu specialist. Whilst chakra could allow a taijutsu specialist to fight with a kenjutsu user, he still had far more range and versatility, along with the fact that his sword was far more potent than the mundane blades used by most, forcing the red-headed Uzumaki to invest more chakra into making sure she wasn't amputated by his strikes.
She was certainly a strong fighter, but this was a won match for him in the long run, even now the woman in front of him seemed to be tired from chakra use, even though it wasn't shown on her face. Due to his years spent mastering the arts of silent assassination, he was one of few who could understand their opponents simply by observing very simple things such as muscle movement, twitching, posture and even breathing patterns.
The problem however, was Haku's side. The two genins proved themselves to be extremely capable, one being a borderline Seal-master, whilst the other seemed to have the brute strength of a Bijuu. The two were actively using their tailed beast chakra and were pressuring Haku hard, he needed to end it fast.
But before he could do anything however, a flash of white struck the middle of the bridge, surprising all the fighters. As the dust cleared, the girl he had been waiting for was standing in the middle of a small crater.
Great… he thought with annoyance. They were already troublesome with only three people, but now with the addition of the wildcard, chances for victory without sacrifices was low, VERY low.
Their eyes met, but he could feel fire in them this time, something he couldn't feel before. Last time, she was simply a girl with a sword, but now it felt like he was in front of a warrior. Something felt off as well about the signature he was getting. It felt like chakra but… it was different.
He shook his get to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts. Over thinking things before a fight was a formula for demise.
The girl looked over to the Hokage's wife, Kushina, if he recalled correctly. The older woman looked conflicted for a moment, but let out a resigned sigh after seeing the determined look on the girl's face. She retreated back to the end of the bridge to observe, whilst the girl took her place, eyes still locked onto him.
A moment of silence passed between the two, until she opened her mouth. "Shall we continue this?" She asked, a smirk present on her face.
"Before we begin, what changed? You seem to have… changed." He asked back. It was a simple probe for information that most wouldn't answer, but the two were no longer fighting as shinobi, but as wielders of the sword.
"The most I can tell you is a breakthrough, though you can find out about the rest yourself." She replied, bringing her hand up next to her as if she was holding a sword in the empty hands of hers.
He raised an eyebrow in surprise, "And where did your sword go?"
"Right in these hands."
He stared at the empty space being held by the girl, and as he concentrated he could smell a small, but noticeable trace of blood in what seemed to be the air she was holding.
The sword is invisible now… I see. He concluded as he got into a stance of his own.
"Momochi Zabuza, former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." He declared with confidence
"Naruko, just Naruko. Swordsman, huntress, and what you would know as the Kyuubi." She declared with no hint of fear, her glowing eyes sharpening even further.
He didn't flinch nor show any reaction to the last title. It did not matter who he opponent was, even if it was a god. As long as it wielded a sword and had honor, it was no more than his equal on the stage of the duel.
Without another word, the two moved.
***
Naruko used her reinforced speed to take Zabuza by surprise, as he was most likely still used to her old level of speed, and it worked splendidly. He barely had time to block as she sent a slash at his chest, sparks flying as her blade clashed with the monstrous blade he wielded. The exchange lasted for a moment before her opponent directed [Yami] away from himself and attempted to get on the offensive himself, though she wouldn't fall for the same trap twice.
Twisting herself on her heels, she narrowly avoided the strike meant to decapitate her and smashed the pommel of her sword against his arm, causing him to wince slightly, though not much as he had reinforced his defenses his chakra beforehand.
He sent a kick at her chest as she brought her sword down to block, though the force still sent her flying into the air even though she sustained no damage. Using the small time window as an opportunity, she swiftly summoned her bow and aimed it towards Zabuza whilst she was still descending upside down. Even under such firing conditions, Kurama corrected any errors she had in her aim, allowing her to accurately target her opponent's heart at an impossible angle.
A normal person would have scoffed at her actions and charged her, but Zabuza was no such man. He was a trained nin who was one of the best swordsman in the elemental nations, the amount of battles he had lived through ensured that his instincts were far sharper than most. He dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding her arrows before dashing towards her landing area.
Re-summoning [Yami], She barely blocked Zabuza in time as he used her lack of footing to his advantage. With a small shout, she pushed Zabuza away and landed a fair distance away, resetting the fight completely.
Through the short exchange, a few things were clear. The first was that she was definitely faster and stronger in her current state, but Zabuza had the advantage of experience, skill and sharper instincts. Even though her first strike should have been too fast for a human to react to, the man had raised his monstrous sword to block without even knowing that she was attacking. He must have been in countless battles to death to possess such strong survival instincts and intuition.
"It's basically a cheat!" She internally shouted in frustration.
"Yes… the person with the completely overpowered gear along with the strength and speed beyond that of humans along with a never before seen energy source is calling someone else a cheat…" Kurama deadpanned whilst working on deciphering Zabuza's attack pattern.
"…" She remained silent, too prideful to admit that the tailed beast was correct. Kurama chuckled in victory as she saw Naruko pout slightly.
Though there was something that Zabuza could not beat her at no matter what he did, and that was stamina. Even though he was a shinobi, one of the top tier ones at that, he could still get tired if he used too much chakra, and currently she was forcing him to use far more than he normally used just so he could keep up with her enhanced strength and speed. If this were to go on for much longer, he wouldn't last.
She tightly grasped [Yami] before leaping off towards Zabuza again, ground under her buckling under each step. She increased the weight of [Yami] by 60x, a weight that she could handle with her body as a Mana Construct. Each attack of hers increasing in intensity as Zabuza miraculously countered. As the exchanges continued, Zabuza switched from parrying to simply redirecting her strikes, switching their roles completely from the last time they had fought.
At the same time, a genuine smile found itself on Naruko's face. It was perhaps the first ever fight she had to last so long, against such a skilled opponent too. All her sparring matches with Itachi and Sasuke ended too fast either because her opponent was too strong or too inexperienced, and it had dulled the excitement she first felt when wielding a sword.
Her first fight with Zabuza was more not one she could take any luxury in, as she was rather weak compared to her current self and her family's lives were at stake.
Now, however, she was far stronger than before and her family was not in any immediate danger as far as she could tell. For the first time in several years, she finally felt the thrill of the battle as a disturbing laugh escaped her lips as she and her opponent darted past each other, blades colliding.
"Oh dear…" Kurama sweat dropped, afraid at the prospects of Naruko becoming a battle junky.
Focused on his sword entirely, Naruko let her eyes wander from Zabuza's feet. Seeing the opportunity, he lifted it slightly to trip her.
"Under you!" Kurama called, but it was just a little too late. She attempted to jump over his foot, but the pointed end of her solleret got caught, causing her to fall forwards. Zabuza didn't waste a moment as he raised his sword, intending to end the match. It was a very common tactic, but to find such a small opening on her end and utilizing it to his advantage in the small time frame he had was an ability that deserved respect.
Time seemed to slow down for her as her thought processes sped up, assessing the situation and finding the best method to escape her predicament. A fraction of a second passed, but to her it seemed more like a minute. Time sped up again, as she watched the butcher knife come down, aiming to decapitate her.
"HA!" With a shout, she spun a full 180 degree mid air, a feat that defied all logic. With her right hand, she grasped the sharp end of Zabuza's sword before it could separate her head, and used it to launch herself into the air, dragging Zabuza to the floor at the same time. She landed on the construction crane as she looked down at Zabuza, who performed a role before getting back onto his feet.
Seeing the blood on the end of his sword, she looked down at her own right hand, the one she had used to block the attack. Even though the gauntlet was of highest quality and could protect her even from A-rank jutsu's, Zabuza's swing was meant to end the duel, and therefore contained much power. She could see that his sword had managed to cut through her gauntlet, almost completely severing hand through the palm. In fact, half of her hand was simply dangling from the cut, just barely attached to her body through a small amount of skin.
However, the pain she felt was minimal, it was numb than painful to be honest. Her sense of pain had dulled severely after becoming a Chakra Construct, something that was even further enhanced after becoming a Mana Construct. Currently, she would most likely only feel what could be described as pain if her body was grinded to pieces.
"Naruko!" She heard Kushina shout with worry, with a trace of confusion as to why she didn't look so worried. It was revealed a moment later however as her injury was ingulfed in a what seemed to be red and dark light. The air in the area dispersed as her hand began to stitch itself together, causing Zabuza and Kushina to gape in astonishment, though Naruto and Haruka were too focused on their fight to notice what was happening.
[Yoru: Dreamless Utopia] was a manifestation of her will to live and the tailed beast's immortality, it was the key to her bijuu-like regeneration, which could heal even fatal wounds (though she wasn't very eager to test its full capabilities. Despite the fact that she felt little to no pain, injuring and mangling herself was not a pleasant experience).
As the light faded, her deformed hand that had almost been cut in two was as good as new, even the cut on her gauntlet seemed to have vanished.
She stared down at Zabuza, whose expression seemed to be a mix between irritation and annoyance (both pretty much the same thing anyways). She certainly could relate, if she had managed to get in a such a blow only to have it heal effortlessly, she too would most likely have been pissed off.
The two were cut from their little staring contest however, as the sound of a body hitting the floor registered. The two looked to the side, where her siblings were standing next to a girlish boy—something she most likely would have mistaken if not for her sense of smell. The boy had a hole where his heart was, and looking closely he could see Naruto shaking slightly with his left hand drenched in blood, possibly frozen in shock from the act of killing someone directly for the first time.
The light in the boy's eyes dulled as she stared up at Zabuza, who's eyes were widened from shock, from the ground. "Zabuza… sama…" He said as she tried to raise a hand towards the swordsman, "Was I… useful… in the end…?" He asked softly with a smile on his face, before his raised arm dropped lifelessly.
Silence ensued as Zabuza stared at the boy's body, a myriad of emotions flashing across his face, most prominent being disappointment and sadness, but under that was an emotion that he was attempting to hide desperately, something possibly only she picked up.
Pain.
"It's over Zabuza." She said confidently, using his disorientation to her advantage. Whilst it may be seen by some as disrespect for the dead, they entered the fight knowing that there was a high chance this was how it would turn out, yet the two missing nin did not turn around. They came prepared to die, and she would not disrespect their spirits.
"You underestimate my power." He replied immediately before leaping towards her, most likely affected by the death of his accomplice. For a regular person, such an act would have counted as insane, but a shinobi could leap hundreds of meters into the air if they put their all into it.
That however, was Zabuza's one and final mistake.
Since Zabuza could no longer dodge in the state he was in, she positioned [Yami] behind her, facing the opposite direction of Zabuza. Though she couldn't handle the burst of speed whilst moving at full speeds, it was a different story if she was stationary.
As [Invisible Air] was released, a violent gale assaulted the area as Naruko's shot forward like a comet. Zabuza's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, but it was already too late. In not even a fraction of a second, Naruko was already in front of him, [Yami] shining in all its glory and no longer hidden.
"It's… OVER!" She yelled as their blades met mid air. The momentum from her attack immediately overpowered Zabuza's sword, cutting right through it. The sword continued on its path, cutting right across Zabuza's chest as her momentum forced her to continue towards the ground, shaking the very foundations of the bridge as she landed.