Several years ago…
"Tou-san, what are we doing today?" Haku asked as he caught a fish with a spear of ice that he had created.
Zabuza, who was observing from behind, blinked in surprise.
"Tou-san?" He asked
Haku, who had realised his mistake, swiftly covered his mouth, dropping his spear of ice in the process as the skewered fish was swept up by the stream.
"Zabuza-sama, I m-meant u-uh…" He stuttered, unable to formulate a response.
"Don't worry about it," Zabuza told him, causing the girlish boy to look up in surprise.
"I will allow it just this once." He added, a huge smile appearing on Haku's face as he did, eyes sparkling with light he had never seen in the boy.
***
Yes…
I see now…
The light in Haku's eyes, it was the same.
He chuckled as he looked down at Haku who had passed on, his body lying in his hands. Brushing his hair aside slightly, Zabuza saw a content smile on the dead boy's face. A similar smile made its way under the bandages that covered his mouth as he rested his chin on top of the boy's head.
"To think… my wish… was right in front of me… all this time…" He said as his vision blurred. Death was catching up with him fast, but he didn't care anymore. His wish had been fulfilled, and he could die the way he wanted.
"Hey, little girl…" He called weakly. Even under the screeching sound of the pillar of light, he knew that the girl could still hear him.
"Thank… You…"
And he died, in the hands of a loved one.
***
"Since when were you so good at reading people?" Naruko asked, surprised that Kurama could figure out Zabuza completely in the short time they had together.
"I'm thousands upon thousands of years old, I've seen all kinds of people, countless whom were like him." The tailed beast replied without going into much detail.
"…Thank you for that."
"It was the right thing to do… You taught me that."
Naruko inwardly smiled, celebrating the fact that he managed to change Kurama from a human-hating fox to one who could at least respect others.
Zabuza, despite being a swordsman and missing nin, was just a lost man without a purpose. Everyone deserved a satisfying end, no matter who they were, and Zabuza was just one such man. She was glad that she, or technically Kurama, managed to atleast give him peace in death.
She was broke out of her thoughts however, as the pillar of light dissipated. Despite Phoebus Catastrophe's main attack looking like a beam of light, it was in fact thousands, if not millions of needle thin projectiles that rained upon an area continuously.
When she had first tested it out, she found an aria was the best way of bringing out the full potential of her attacks, and with the help of Kurama and countless hours of trial and error, she had finally settled upon the first line. At least she was satisfied with it in the end.
Looking forward, she wasn't surprised to find the section of the bridge missing, essentially splitting the entire structure in half. Gatou and his men had no chance, and were most certainly dead, though no one would ever find a trace of them.
Suddenly, she remembered an important part of the technique which she had completely forgotten about when she used Phoebus Catastrophe.
"Oh shit…" She cursed, surprising her team who still seemed to be in awe, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
"Haruka, Defense seal on 10m radius, quick!" She yelled, breaking her sister out of her stupor. Though the girl didn't seem to know what was happening, she followed the instructions nonetheless due to the tone of her voice.
A barrier engulfed the four of them as a projectile descended from the clouds. If one were to look carefully, they would see the original arrow that she fired to activate Phoebus Catastrophe.
Like a comet, it shot down in a line straight into the hole in the middle of the bridge before striking the water. A moment later, a loud explosion sounded under the bridge, shaking the structure itself as the waves in the sea fluctuated violently.
A minute passed before it all died down, finally allowing Haruka to dispel the barrier that had kept them safe from the large waves created from the explosion.
Sweat dripped down her back as she felt three piercing gazes. Though she admitted that using Phoebus Catastrophe on a bridge under construction was not a sound idea, it was the only way she could convey her thoughts to Zabuza at the time.
Besides, it was Kurama's idea anyway!
"HEY!"
"So will you be explaining just what in the HELL that was, or do we have to beat it out of you?" Kushina asked as she cracked her knuckles, an ominous aura escaping her that promised pain.
"You're… paying… for… repair…" Haruka added, one hand pointing to the gap that now existed between the two sides of the bridge.
"WOW, you really are my sister after all, show me how you do that when we get ho—GAH!" He began before he was pinned to the floor by Kushina, who began to lecture him on issues of subtlety.
Naruko sweat dropped.
"Uhh, weren't they going to interrogate me a second ago, and did they seriously just forget that we're in the middle of a bridge that might collapse soon if we don't do something?" she asked Kurama, completely clueless as to what she should do in such a situation
"I swear, all Uzumaki's are strange in their own ways…" Kurama replied whilst reminiscing about her time in her former containers.
Naruko sighed as she looked behind her towards where Zabuza was.
His eyes were closed as his chin rested on the girlish boy's head, arms to his side. She was surprised however, to see the boy's arms circled around Zabuza's limp body even in death. Looking carefully, she could see a smile on both Zabuza and the boy's faces, though Zabuza's was slightly harder to make out under the bandage. She smiled in satisfaction and she looked back at her mother and siblings, for she knew that the two would meet again, somewhere far away.
For death was simply the next great adventure, after all.
"Hey, you stole that one off from my memories"
"Shut it."