The Shopkeeper of Konoha

249. You can talk?



Haku didn't counter that but formed another set of mirrors around. This time, Sasuke was able to keep up with the speed of Haku's attacks and used his kunai to counter him. Sasuke knew that killing Haku this way was not possible, so he made a plan.

While countering Haku, he tried to conserve energy and also ensured that Haku spent more chakra. Sustaining those mirrors for a long time wasn't feasible, as Sasuke could tell. Sasuke inched away from the mirrors while distracting her.

Sakura also got the hint and pulled Naruto away from danger while Sasuke was slowly inching towards Zabuza. Haku could see that, but he could not do anything to stop Sasuke. He tried sending a barrage of needle attacks at Sasuke, only for him to back off at the last moment.

And just like in the original story, Sasuke in the end was able to help Kakashi by sending a flurry of kunai attacks. Since Haku wasn't able to relentlessly attack Sasuke, he got close to Zabuza and sent a huge shuriken that he had in his bag, along with a bunch of kunai.

Of course, Zabuza wasn't foolish enough not to see the attack of a genin, but here was the problem. Kakashi's Chidori was coming to get him, so he could only move so much. Zabuza didn't get enough time to escape, and before he knew it, Chidori was close enough to kill him.

This was where Haku came in. He made a run for it and did his best to save his mentor. According to the original story, Haku should have been the one to come between Zabuza and sacrifice his life for him.

But nothing like that happened. Haku made a run, and before he could get between Kakashi and Zabuza, a small yellow portal opened, and he stumbled toward it. Thus, he was in a different location altogether. Of course, this was done by Naruto, who had finally gained consciousness. Though he was not able to move chakra around, he was able to open a portal.

He did that because he thought Haku would harm Kakashi; little did he know that Haku was trying to protect him. Meanwhile, Zabuza wasn't able to stop Kakashi's attack and had to take Chidori right on his shoulder.

Zabuza didn't stand a chance, and his right arm just fell off as Sasuke struck him. He cried out in pain as he fell into a small pool of his own blood. Haku wasn't sent far and thus came running in. He was distraught at the sight of his mentor and father figure lying on the ground.

Sasuke had his arm around Naruto's neck as they walked in, while Kakashi was spent and looked at Haku, who had been crying like a broken record. Sakura felt bad for this person and wanted to help out of empathy but was berated by Kakashi.

Haku looked up and saw Naruto and his team. His eyes were filled with anger and hatred as he looked at them, especially Naruto, since he was the one responsible for sacrificing himself to save him.

"What are you looking at me for? I just saved you from a terrible mentor," Naruto said bluntly, seeing the anger on Haku's face.

"I will kill you," Haku replied through gritted teeth and jumped at Naruto. Everyone was spent and didn't have the energy to stop another attack, which came as a surprise.

"Naruto! Dodge!" Sakura cried out and actually put herself between them and Haku. She somehow found the courage after seeing Sasuke at the last moment and was fueled by guilt. She closed her eyes, expecting to be hit by Haku.

"No, Sakura!"

"Sakura!"

Everyone cried out, but before Haku could land his needle on Sakura and throw her away, he was hit in the face by something. There was a sudden black flash, and he was thrown away as if a hurricane had come and changed his direction altogether.

"What the…" Kakashi and Sasuke saw what had hit Haku, and not even in their wildest dreams could they imagine such a situation. Haku, who had been hit, got up with a mark on his pretty white and feminine face.

The mark of a paw was evident, as now the mist had cleared with Zabuza on his deathbed. Naruto and Sakura finally understood what had hit Haku. It was the black cat.

Yoruichi.

"Yoruichi-san…" Sakura had always called the cat directly Yoruichi, but for some reason, she wanted to pay respects at this time. And for the first time in front of everyone, Yoruichi spoke up in her iconic voice.

"You have done enough. If you leave now, you can save him. You can choose to be here and ask for revenge or save that person."

"What? Yoruichi-san can speak?" Naruto was going mad as he had never seen her speak.

"The cat speaks?" Sasuke was beyond disbelief, just like Sakura.

"Is this some kind of different Palicko?" Kakashi thought.

Haku looked at Zabuza and knew that the cat was right. Though he didn't expect a cat to hit him in the face with such force, he had a feeling that if he pushed his luck, it might turn out bad for him. Haku, with drooped shoulders and tired eyes, slowly crawled toward Zabuza and picked him up.

Zabuza was alive, but he needed to stop the bleeding. Haku gave him rudimentary medical help, but it wasn't enough. If he wasn't treated, he would die in 2 to 3 hours. Naruto was still not over the fact that Yoruichi could talk.

"What are you looking at?" Yoruichi said, looking at Naruto, who had his jaw on the floor.

"You can talk?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, I can talk. And I need to do more now as there are people coming in," Yoruichi said as she looked into the distance. Everyone turned around and saw five ninjas in the distance, each of them wearing an anbu mask, and some of them were wearing the mist village headband.

Announcement
Read 50+ chapters on my patreon

Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.